Daniel and I are holding our own here in Cambridge. I went to the doc on Friday and got a fill up
of hydration and my monthly anti-body infusion. He thought the rash on my face was looking better and noted that the
rash on the rest of my body is almost gone. I can expect to have this severe abdominal disturbance for at least
another three weeks, ugh. He left me on
60 mg of prednisone for now. The
prednisone of course is compromising my immune system and so I’m back in
relative isolation and wearing a mask when I am out (which isn’t much since I
spend most of my time in the bathroom). My emotions are up and down. Mostly my fears of immediate demise are gone. I feel pretty good in the morning, but by
afternoon the intestines are flaming and I do get discouraged. I’m getting lots of good emails and phone
calls to brighten my days.
The blood test news was good. My very high white count (27k) dropped to 18K
this week. Low white count was the major
symptom of leukemia, so I’m happy my donor cells are really working and
providing me with white cells, even if they are also attacking my body in
unfortunate ways. The best news is that
my liver function was one-third better than the week before, though still bad. I’m most afraid of attacks on my liver (no
Jack Daniels for me).
I have been strong enough to resume my online studies. We are starting study of the prophets in the
Hebrew Bible course. I’m sure to be
writing about that here.
One benefit that has come from this illness is a new way of
eating. Daniel and I love dairy products
and red meat. A typical day for us would
start with a couple of cups of latte that Daniel crafts with his profession
machine. Yumm. Then we’d have French toast cooked with lots
of butter and loaded with even more Crème Fraiche. Lunch would be cheese and maybe some
proscuitto. Daniel would grill steaks or
hamburgers for dinner. Wow, what eats. But NONE of this is allowed on my diet
now. No dairy; no red meat. How am I to eat? The diet for intestinal disturbance is called
BRAT (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast or tea). How bland.
The problem with the BRAT diet, other than it being too
boring, is that it is deficient in calories, protein, and micro nutrients. It is ok for a few days of resting the
intestines, but not sufficient for a long term problem like mine. The good news is that I’m obsessed with food
now. I watch six shows a day on the Food
Network. I’ve become obsessed with
cooking and inventing foods that meet the criteria of BRAT with more flavor and
protein.
This week I started to crave chicken stew with cooked
vegetables like peeled celery and carrots. With Daniel acting as my sous chief, I cooked a big pot of chicken with
rice and soft veges. It was a
laugh. Our electric stove is old and
funky (not level). I was equipped with
Daniel’s fine cast iron Dutch oven, but it has been twenty years since I used a
Dutch oven. Needless to say, this is a
recipe for disaster. It wasn’t quite
that. I decided to use olive oil since
my regular favorite butter was out of the question. I was determined to dredge and brown the
chicken. At first the oil was too little
and too cool; then I put in too much oil and made it too hot. In the end, both chicken and veges were
edible, even good in their own way. We
had food for several days, and I learned a lot about regulating the temp of the
stove and managing the big Dutch oven.
Yesterday I figured that if I could eat toast on my diet, I
could eat bread, even corn bread, and therefore I can eat dressing (stuffing). So, I determined to make a batch of one of my
favorite foods, cornbread dressing. Yum. I’m used to starting it with
melting a cup of butter. But not this
time. I browned the celery in a third
cup of olive oil, moisturizing the bread crumbs with five cups of Trader Joe’s
delicious free range chicken broth. The
result was at least as good as I remember getting when I used the butter.
Bananas are the best thing I could be eating right now, but
for some reason even very ripe bananas taste dry and unappealing to me. I’ve been unable to eat more than a
half. Today I’m going to try making
banana rice pudding using rice milk. If
it works out, it could be a great addition to my diet.
For a long time we have wanted to eat “more
Mediterranean.” This has often meant
tomatoes with balsamic vinegar along with the steak. I think that we will be changing to more
chicken and fish now. I’m finding that
just a little balsamic vinaigrette really sparks up the flavor of white rice. I’m looking forward to being able to eat
salads again, but for now I’m content to take better care of my intestines so
they can heal.
This post has been about what I think of most of the time
these days: food and the challenge of eating well on my constrained diet. Thanks for listening.
D
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