Random Update

I met with the physician's assistant today before my radiation session. She was very nice and helpful. Bad news is I weigh 164.4 lbs. I've never weighed less than 185 since I was 16. The doc says I need to keep on top of it as I'm likely losing muscle and not fat and I can't be losing weight now. My legs definitely feel weaker and look thinner, so I guess that's pretty much what's going on. Of course her advice is to eat more, especially proteins, but everything pretty much tastes the same, which is almost not at all.

Apparently the loss of the taste buds is from the chemo not the radiation, which is not what I had thought at all. The bulk of my side effects are caused by the chemo, according to her. The only side effects the radiation will cause are the burns, which haven't really started yet, and a loss in my ability to swallow. She said that I'll be unable to swallow liquids first and then solids, which is kind of backwards, I thought.

So, her orders are: start gargling with baking soda and salt four times a day, today and if I can't eat enough protein on my own I have to have at least 4 cans of the high nitrogen canned food a day.

The waiting room at Ironwood has a television which is always, inexplicably on the food network. Anthony Bourdain's show is always on when I'm there and it is making me insane. After the treatment we stopped at the grocery store to get some baking soda and, well, obviously it's full of food... We passed by the deli and they have an amazing olive bar with so many different awesome olives, roasted garlic and dolmas! Stuffed grape leaves! I love dolmas. So not right. Sadly there are just too many things there I just can't enjoy, even the mediocre grocery sushi was driving me crazy.

On the good news front, Kevin made tamales last night and I ate a good amount of it tonight. I actually tasted a good bit of it. Not sure if it's the spicy or the tomato, but it was good.