Food

Food has always been one of my favorite pleasures. I've always loved dining out--trying new foods, our favorite sushi bar, a delicious prime rib, a new wine discovery, dessert, coffee. Nothing tastes the same since chemo. There are some foods that still taste relatively good to me: my morning cereal with milk is ok and I now love to eat steak on Saturday night. We used to be regulars at the sushi bar. I probably haven't gone two weeks without sushi in a few years. But that is on hold now. I can eat no raw foods until my chemo is over. My immune system may not be able to handle it.

There are some foods I loved as a child that taste good now. I used to love macaroni and cheese. The kind that comes in those little blue boxes and you add the butter and milk. That tastes good. But the triscuits and wheat thins--that I used to have to ration so I wouldn't eat too much--don't appeal any longer. Sweets don't even taste good now, although I keep checking just to make sure.

And coffee--oh my. I am an addict. Or, I should say, I was. Once chemo began, my beloved coffee no longer tasted the same. My cravings left. I tried to drink it for almost a week. I made it at home--couldn't finish one cup. I got it at Starbucks--my favorite drink, the americano--and had to throw it away.

This is all temporary. I am sure after chemo is over in 3 months or so that I will be back on the coffee, the wine, the sushi. I will abandon the mac and cheese, possibly the steak too, and I will eat a lot of fresh green veggies and fruit every day. That is the anti-cancer lifestyle that I will be living for the rest of my life.