Chemotherapy challenges for mesothelioma

Four days in to the second round of chemo and we are following the same pattern as last time, which basically means a pretty crappy first week. He looks terrible , is fighting constant nausea and seems to have aged 40 years. The new anti-sickness drugs don’t seem to be any better , but then again he isn’t actually throwing up , and he is managing to eat , so things could be even worse.

When he isn’t feeling ill , he’s sleeping, trying to make up for lost sleep at night when the nausea keeps him awake. Effectively we are poisoning him, just hoping the bad cells get poisoned more quickly. We knew this first six months would be tough and we were right.

The additional challenge with mesothelioma , is that it’s terminal not curable. At times he wonders if this is worth it, I daren’t tell him about others who are at their third or even fourth rounds , I am constantly terrified he is going to call it a day at any time, we have another 4 sessions of this course.

On a positive note, last time, week two did show a definite improvement ( although there were nosebleeds to contend with) , so hopefully this will be the case again.

Truly awful rhubarb crumble – cancer fighting properties

In my ongoing battle to match up my cooking abilities with the nutritional demands of chemo, thought a rhubarb crumble would be a good bet. Hah

That simple recipe went impressively wrong, in general my cooking abilities have improved over the last few months, as my partner who generally ruled the kitchen with an iron fist, occasionally allowing me to peel( although never graduated to chopping ) vegetables, has had to deal with the meso diagnosis.

It has become rare for me to deliver something totally inedible – the crumble managed it. I seemed to have purchased an unusual disappearing rhubarb, leaving me with a rather unpleasant damp crumbly biscuit.

My confidence however remains undented, we are having homemade soup today for lunch, thank you sophie grigson, this one i have been able to manage.

Hopefully his nausea will start to reduce by the weekend, when i can attempt rhubarb crumble part 2

In February 2010, scientists found that eating rhubarb baked in a crumble is not only tasty it may also be the best way to take advantage of its health benefits, and could lead to the development of new cancer treatments.

Researchers have found that baking British garden rhubarb for 20 minutes dramatically increases its levels of anti-cancerous chemicals. The findings from academics at Sheffield Hallam University, together with the Scottish Crop Research Institute, were published in the journal Food Chemistry.

Chemicals, called polyphenols, have been shown to selectively kill or prevent the growth of cancer cells, and could be used to develop new, less toxic, treatments for the disease, even in cases where cancers have proven resistant to other treatments.

Academics are now hoping to use the results to study the effect of rhubarb’s polyphenols on leukaemia.

A spring weekend

Bloods were borderline, so hopefully will pick up over the weekend, and allow round 2 on Monday . Long chat with the doctors on Friday, so they are changing the antisickness, plus hopefully as he is having both the side effects of radiotherapy and chemo at the moment, maybe lethargy will reduce.

Has just started to lose his hair, although we are keeping fingers crossed , it will just thin rather than go all together. As only me and his parents know about his cancer, if he loses his hair will become impossible to hide , so we’ll have to deal with all sorts of issues about telling his children, which would rather avoid at the moment.

In a bit of a catch 22 at the moment, in that exercise is being recommended , but he is so tired that even a short walk is taxing. Have booked a court for tennis tomorrow, so will see how we get on.
Grand prix this weekend- so other activities around that

Found some photos from our trip to Austria last spring , before all this started, here to a few more holidays ahead

The vital elements

Last weekend ahead before chemo round 2 on Monday, assuming of course bloods are Ok today. Personally , not to sure about the iron levels, think he looks a bit anaemic, so have been scouring cookbooks for iron rich foods, given he doesn’t eat red meat or fish this is proving to be a challenge. There really is only so much spinach and broccoli you can eat.

During my iron research, found a whole new element to worry about – Magnesium, so am also now looking at what foods include this as well- spinach and broccoli in there again – very disappointed chocolate eclairs never seem to feature on any of these food suggestions.

Have been checking out Betty Crocker cooking with cancer book, found a couple of recipes , although they all seem to be feature black eyed beans , so have put in the extra order on Ocado.

Have a week of nausea coming up , so have looked at those recipes as well, not too sure about the mustard chicken , not sure I fancy that feeling well. Have also found a recipe for a fruit spread that contains senna tea , so now have in stock enough figs and prunes for the whole neighbourhood, just waiting for the tea delivery . Will get that cooked this weekend and see how we get on.

Finally will be making the usual apricot tea cake and thought might also go for chicken tagine this weekend ( apricots also score highly on my mega food stuff list)

There’s also a cajun chicken on quinoa in the good food issue this month, so may well give this one a go .

Off to Barts soon for the blood tests, beautiful day so think we’ll take the convertible.

Cooking challenges

The dark days at the end of surgery are now behind us – now we are into the chemotherapy part of the obstacle course. Round 1 was two weeks ago, with round 2 to start in one week. The first week is a long week, nausea, tiredness, general aches and pains….. been described as think of your worst hangover , now double it and think of no end in sight.

Week two has its little surprises, one really good day followed by two days of exhaustion and some scary nosebleeds. Week three is just starting , whilst the aches and pains are retreating the tiredness has returned in full force.

There’s also a constant salty taste in his mouth , so cooking is proving to be a challenge. Thought I was doing really well , with some home made minestrone soup, forgot of course that one of the ingredients was parmesan !!! Doh

Then attempted quite a plain quiche, apparently pastry isn’t god because it takes him too long to digest.

Despite initial reservations, did a little better with an apple and nectarine crumble, with vanilla ice cream

Am now wracking my brains for supper tonight. Am working upwards from a plain omelette. Given they keep stressing how important it is he gets enough protein and carbohydrates, I am looking for something a bit more substantial. Sauted potatoes are on my radar, perhaps with broccoli – sounds bland to me , but you never can tell.
Will bring the ice cream into play again.

I think one of the reasons for the tiredness is that his body is now working on replacing the blood cells etc , which is leaving him little energy

Looks as though the voluntary redundancy is going to be a viable option, so at least I’ll have lots of time to be in the kitchen.

Scrap the omelette – doesn’t fancy eggs. Apparently , would prefer bacon ( personally I would class that as salty )