A Love Affair with Flavor

I am having a love affair with flavor.

Yesterday was Ken's birthday and we went out for Mexican food. I was worried about my first bite of chips and salsa....but it was HEAVEN! I can't explain the explosion of flavor that hapened in my mouth and throughout my entire body. I almost wanted to cry. The only way to experience it is to swear off of all flavorful food for 8 weeks and eat only bland food....the most flavorful being chicken noodle soup....and then don't eat very much of anything....especially seasoning. Eat lots of soda crackers, ritz crackers, cream of wheat and rice krispies....that's it for 8 weeks. Throw in some daily severe nausea just for good measure..... THEN, have a chip with salsa. OH MY GOSH! You all don't know how good food tastes. I'm sure you take it all for granted, like I used to, but I am having a great time discovering food all over again!

(Just for the record - my stomach isn't exactly happy about my Mexican food fiesta last night...but I'm okay with the little extra pain that I'm feeling. It was SO worth it!)

Wanted to say "Thank You" for the blog comments. I do enjoy reading them....and it feels great knowing there are friends who are interested. So - thank you.

Having great days now....better every day. I still have some pain when I eat and a little nausea during the day, but it is so much less than it used to be. I can even say that I feel better than I did a week ago - I feel better than I did 3 days ago!

I have all my re-tests coming up in a few weeks. I'm hoping the cancer is so small and so 'gone' that they actually question whether they need to do surgery...and that if/when they do decide to do surgery that they can do it laproscopically to lessen the complexity, the scars and the hospital time.

Here's to better days...

Recuperating in WA

Okay - I'm going to try this again. I'm on a slow-ish connection and I tried this once but it didn't post. Dang it!

I am in Tri-Cities WA doing the rest of my recovery. Ken and I drove up on Sunday. I am so grateful that we changed Ken's travel schedule so that he could drive up with me...and he'll drive back with me as well. There is just no way I could have made it alone. I think I slept 1/3 of the way. One cool thing - we stopped in Boise for lunch at a Wendy's near the Boise State stadium. I really wanted to go and see the smurf turf for myself....but I was able to control myself. Probably wouldn't have been anyone there on a Sunday afternoon to show me the blue grass!

Didn't do much yesterday....just tried to relax and enjoy. I might make it to the grocery store for an 'outing' today...but you never really know. I plan to do something and then I just don't make it because I get tired. I'll be SO glad when I feel better.

I am 1 1/2 weeks past radiation and chemo so I've passed the "3-days-after-you'll-begin-to-feel-better" milestone and I'm headed right for the "2-weeks-after-you'll-begin-to-feel-much-better" milestone.

Chicken Soup

Having Chicken Noodle Soup for dinner. Mmm, mmm good! (Actually I'm mostly having the broth and the little chicken pieces....) There's just so little I can eat and feel good about since my esophagus and my stomach have been blasted!

I'm getting sick of sitting around watching movies, which is probably a good sign. I am so grateful when my sister, Laura, gets me out of the house for a few minutes or comes by to distract me for a little bit. That helps my day. Today was a quick Costco run for a flatiron. It turned out that I really needed to go to Costco because after we got the flatiron and Laura and Bethany on their way, I went back inside and spent over $100!

Going to Washington to spend a few weeks with Ken next week. Probably leaving on Sunday. It will be SO nice to spend a few weeks together just being normal. I miss Ken so much when we have to be apart....this'll be a nice respite from the loneliness.

Here's to healing. Just wish it happened a little bit faster.....

It's Over and it's harder than I thought....

Well - treatment is done. If I could muster the energy, I'd jump up and down with excitement.

I have never felt worse in my life. I thought Bell's Palsy was the worst thing I had ever been through in my life (that was 17 years ago now)....but this beats anything I've ever dealt with.

I can hardly eat or drink without getting sick. I eat very little tiny bits and 'drink' ice chips. My stomach convulses several times each day.

My radiation doc says about 3 days after treatments end I should begin to tell that I'm starting to feel better....but I won't really feel better for 2 weeks.

I keep waiting for a day when I feel halfway okay to update this blog....but I haven't had one for awhile.