Category Archives: Smoothies

Officially NED

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I confirmed today with my care team that yes, it’s official, I am NED as of May 9! This means:

  • I am now in what they described as “surveillance mode” — they’ll be checking on me periodically. My oncologist said ordinarily I would now do scans every 6 months (with bloodwork every 3-4 months) but she needs to check the stipulations of the clinical trial I participated in last year. I am pretty sure the scans are more frequent with that trial.
  • The port will come out — I’ll no longer be a cyborg!
  • The active topic now is focusing on my continued recovery from the recent reversal surgery. It’s all about what comes in, and how frequently it goes out. I did get the green light today to expand my diet. Psyllium husk powder every day is working well for me, and I’ll continue with that.
  • My only concern from today’s visit is that my bloodwork from this morning shows that my white blood cell counts have dropped a lot — lower than they ever were during chemo last year (and they were quite low then). They didn’t seem too concerned, suggesting this may be a delayed reaction to radiation, but that doesn’t seem right to me. Radiation for me was a year ago (happened last May-June). I asked them to check into this further.

March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month

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I cannot believe it’s already March — this year is flying by. March is a big month for the colorectal cancer community. We’re dressing in blue on March 7, and our local PNW group is partnering with the Mariners to promote Strike Out Colorectal Cancer Day (Sunday, March 30th).

Meanwhile, I’m happy to report that my “dietary scope” is expanding. This past Friday, I met with an ostomy nurse at Fred Hutch, and she said at this point (2 months post-surgery) it’s fine to start experimenting more with food. So, I’ve taken some baby steps this weekend; I had an impossible burger and some fries at Red Mill with my kiddo Friday evening, and last night I had some split pea soup that was definitely chunky (carrots, celery etc). I seem to be doing ok thus far, so that’s encouraging.

Smoothies continue to be the cornerstone of my daily diet — here’s what went into my smoothie yesterday: generous amount of baby greens (from Trader Joes), frozen banana, frozen mango, apple, avocado, tree nuts (I’ve been alternating between walnuts, cashews, brazil nuts), peanut butter, and pea protein powder. I start off the day with these, and then continue to consume it periodically throughout the day.

color TV

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Over the past week, I’ve been incorporating more and more healthy food into my diet — all via the magic of a blender. My morning smoothies now include apple (peeled), baby greens (kale, chard, spinach), and nuts (walnuts, cashews) in addition to things I’d been including already — protein powder, avocado, bananas. For non-breakfast eats, I’ve been blending up soups with lentils, beans, broccoli, and other vegetables.

Now granted, there has been more than once when I’ve looked at my blended concoctions and note the uncanny resemblance to baby food. I’m basically making a version of baby food for myself, every day. So be it! Blended or no, the fresh greens and nuts are powerful nutrient sources, and I feel much better better after consuming these things. In terms of overall energy level and physical vitality, it’s like a switch from black & white TV, to color TV.

Expanding the diet

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My cousin Kelly will be starting chemo soon, and we’re meeting up this evening so I can bestow upon her the icing kit that I used with many of my own chemo infusions, last year. We discussed meeting up for dinner, and I realized I had a conundrum: is there a local restaurant I can actually eat at, given my current restrictive diet? My go-to is always Asian food (Thai, Japanese), but I can’t eat vegetables, or peanuts, or virtually anything else that is healthy …

After puzzling over this quite a bit, exploring (and then striking out) many options, I sent a message to my care team at Fred Hutch, asking if they had any advice on this. I was happy to hear that they are ok with me beginning to expand my diet, at this point. They explained:


First, you can now advance your diet to include more fiber slowly as tolerated over the course of a couple weeks. The goal here is to introduce fiber one food at a time, chewing well.

Second, you can think about the shape/size of the food to assess the blockage risk. If it is a large chunk, it should be well cooked and/or well chewed.

Third, focusing on soluble fiber first is best as soluble fiber dissolves in water and doesn’t cause bulk, but you can start introducing all kinds of fiber one at a time.

Cool! I am happy about this. Still, however, I wasn’t sure about a restaurant. I was considering Indian food, maybe somewhere where I can get dal or something like that, but it seems like my initial experiment with new dietary options should be at home. Kelly and I have solved this issue by settling on meeting up a dessert place. That’s easier for me — it’s strange but true: less healthy, more processed foods = easier to do with an ileostomy.

But hey, I am very, very ready to move back towards a healthy diet. I mean look what I was doing, back on the morning of my first chemo infusion last summer — an insanely healthy smoothie with chard, kale, various berries .. gotta get back on that train, as this is a key part of the lifestyle to keep my cancer-free, moving forward. So my first venture into healthier eating involves a lentil soup, that I made last night. It includes:

Important to note, after cooking up this soup, I thoroughly pureed it in the blender, to reduce risk of any issues from the lentils. Had this for lunch today (combined with some white rice), and it’s tasty!

I’m realizing a blender is like your best friend, if you’re looking to eat healthy with an ileostomy. Next, I’m planning on starting to incorporate some greens (baby kale) into my smoothies and see how that goes.

Back to the land of the living

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I am feeling normal-ish today for the first time since last Monday morning. This past week involved, I believe, the most intense fatigue I’ve ever experienced. One way to describe it is simply that you’re not fully alive. For example, I worked (as well as I could) this past Friday, and I was in a meeting with many participants. In the meeting, I felt like a ghost, peering into a gathering of alive people: people whose brains function normally. It was similar to the experience on my diagnosis day — everyone sure seemed to be talking awfully fast. And normally, I am one of those people.

But this past chemo week, I was a ghost who spent much of the time in bed. Ordinarily my brain moves quickly in a multi-threading fashion (maybe everyone’s does?); there are usually a few things going on in parallel, one idea sparking another. All that shuts down when I’m a chemo ghost.

So, high level observations from chemo cycle 3:

  • The on-site infusion experience was so godawful BAD. That feeling of my jaw clenching, and the manic jitters all day long… holy hell, what a nightmare. I am all about medically mitigating these horrors in future infusions, via my friend lorazepam (aka Ativan).
  • As noted, much more fatigue this time, over the subsequent days.
  • As with cycle 2, pump disconnect day was hard. I drove myself to that appointment, but in retrospect, that was unwise. I was way too brain-fogged to be operating a vehicle. I’ll be enlisting chaperones for the remaining pump disconnect visits.
  • More nausea this time. It’s still not something bad enough where I feel I need to take the anti-nausea meds they gave me, but if it gets worse in future infusions, yes, I may give those a shot.
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Today’s smoothie

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I am still at Fred Hutch, although due to the late time, I have been transferred to another building, where I’m now doing the irinotecan infusion. This part is 90 minutes and this started at 6pm. With some stuff to happen after this. Long day.

No big side effects currently, another than ongoing jitteriness apparently caused by my pre-chemo cocktail. And, fatigue and brain fog to the max, but … now sing it with me … “That’s what chemo’s all about!” (Sung to the tune of Hokey Pokey!).

So, let me leverage my current delirious chemo-addled condition to describe for you: this morning’s smoothie. I know people are curious. At least you, Tad! :). So here we go – try and guess what’s in there. All the ingredients revealed below!!!

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Chemo day 1

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Here we go! Pre-meds are going in via my port now (anti-nausea, anti-diarrhea — to proactively prevent most common chemo side effects). Actual chemo infusion will start shortly.

I started off the day with a smoothie that included three ingredients from my mom’s garden: chard, kale, and green beans. Thanks Mom!!