Halfway between

So we're halfway between as the title suggests, between the first chemo treatment and the second chemo treatment. So far the results have been mixed, and Mom is definitely still recovering from her incision which slows down the chemo recovery as well. As of today she's eating better, but at her checkup yesterday they informed us that her red blood count is low, so I get to push iron rich foods. So in addition to a protein concentrated diet, we're now working with iron rich, and I finally convinced her that maybe low-fat isn't a great goal to aim for right now.

Odd requests in the last few days:

Chicken in Garlic grapeseed oil with a little bit of basil

• Potato Casserole - as in the sour cream and cheese laden version Mom makes for every special occasion and every non-special occasion
• Steak with onions and mushrooms (okay, that's new, but it's still weird)
• Chicken breast- this worked really well, the white meat seemed easier on her stomach than the red meat was

I did however win a moral victory in that she came to appreciate the necessity of the homemade gelatin I had created last week with Apple Juice.

Things I'm working on for this week:

Hamburger meat for nachos

• Researching iron-rich foods and ranking them so she still gets a balanced diet without too much emphasis in any one food group
• Making sure we're ready for chemo with foods that are easy to digest and will give her natural sources of iron and protein: like baked potatoes and homemade gelatin 

The favorite electrolyte mix so far

We're continuing to push electrolytes, and we've found this mix works best. One packet makes up a liter at a time and we mix ten ounces at a time with five ounces of an organic lemonade, Mom seems to be settling well with that mix. During the week after chemo we concentrate on 40 ounces a day of the electrolyte mix (as you can imagine, I constantly mix the electrolyte solution).






- Karen

Week One comes to a close

The parents are at Dr. D's (the oncologist in charge of mom's care) this morning doing a followup on the surgery and a chemo prep meeting. Here on the homefront we're facing a severe storm, so I'm working out of the basement office, and since I can't cook/clean/hover over the kitchen I've decided doing some posting sounds like a good idea.

During the last seven days that Mom has been home we've mostly focused on high calorie/high protein meals. We're still in the post-op recovery phase, so I pretty much won't let her lift a finger (I may have scolded her for trying to get her own water recently). Recipes that worked:

• Steak, onions and mushroom - it had the high density of protein and iron that she needs right now, and gives her something really solid on her stomach for the prescription motrin too
• Protein shake - we used Jay Robb Whey Protein, the tropical dream variety, which seemed to work well when mixed with milk and frozen mango. She does not however like it just plain mixed in with yogurt. That was a big NO.
• Nachos. It's bizarre to me, but it sounded great to her the first time my dad suggested it, so we've eaten LOTS of nachos this week, with ground beef and guacamole. 

We're continuing to focus on lots of red meat to raise her iron, and the new kicker is something to level out her electrolytes. I may be trying out some new homemade electrolyte drinks. Won't that be fun?