I bet you’ve all been wondering just what I’ve been eating lately, haven’t you? It’s a very interesting subject, indeed, considering I can barely tolerate anything in my mouth or stomach in the past two weeks and yet I am still alive and breathing (with enough energy to type, too!).

Ever since the surgery two weeks ago, I’ve been repeating in my head the important lesson from the nurse: liquid calories are still good calories. I’ve mostly been surviving on Carnation Instant breakfasts. Honey makes me a big ole pitcher of it in the evenings so I can grab and go whenever I get hungry the next day. It’s not necessarily high in protein but it does have lots of essential vitamins and nutrients and calories and it doesn’t have a nasty aftertaste like some of the other protein shakes have. I’ve mostly had chocolate, though in the past few days I’ve been branching out and enjoying the strawberry and vanilla flavors, too.

In addition to the Carnations, I chug water and Powerades in various toxic waste-colored flavors. Calories calories. Calories make me stronger.

Last week, Carolyn discovered some Jamba Juice smoothies that I like so she brought me those three days in a row and they were soooo good! There used to be a Jamba Juice in the Whole Foods less than a mile away from our house but it’s not there anymore so it’s not as easily accessible. Maybe I’ll call sister and ask for a delivery since she lives close to one.

This week, I have slowly graduated to some solid foods. I had a whole banana yesterday! I thought about having peanut butter on it for added protein but I was afraid the thickness would make me gag too much. The dietician at my oncologist’s office told me weeks ago not to worry about having well balanced meals anymore so much as make sure I get calories. Again, with the calories. So I ate the banana and reveled in it.

Honey and I throw little parties whenever I eat something solid. It’s very exciting for us.

He’s tried to serve me rice with chicken broth, chicken noodle soup, toast with butter, etc. And he has learned quickly to not be offended at all when I turn my nose up at something he serves me that I was just asking for only minutes before. He has also learned quickly that when I say, “I think I want …suchandsuch… to eat…” that it means he needs to drop everything and find the ways and means to get it to me immediately because if he waits and tries to time it around an appropriate mealtime during the day, I may lose all interest in it. Sunday night I ate a scrambled egg. I think I wanted those scrambled eggs at 4:30 in the afternoon. He was in the middle of making himself some bachelor food (meals that, when healthy, I cannot stand the thought of eating, otherwise known as food-he-survived-on-before-I-came-along). It didn’t matter. He stopped what he was doing and whipped me up the perfect one scrambled egg I’ve ever had in my life. Not cheesy, not salty, not slimy. Perfect. And yum. And made with love.

He made me toast the other night, too. Very good toast. It had cinnamon sugar baked INSIDE the bread. Not on top. INSIDE. Gotta love Sara Lee.

So, let’s see…Saturday I had the toast. Sunday was the egg day. Yesterday I had a banana. This morning I had cream of wheat but does that really count? It’s sort of between a solid and liquid I guess. My daddy made me my favorite breakfast rice (It’s good, Rasmenia! I SWEAR! TRY IT!) when he came over yesterday. But it was too thick and crunchy and I didn’t really like it. So I substituted with oatmeal and cream of wheat. What do you think? Are those solids or liquids? Yes, I add milk. Yes a lot of it. Enough to be kind of soupy.

I’ve never been a big fan of soup. Only when I have a bad bad cold, on day one of said cold do I ever want the taste of chicken soup near my mouth. I’m very picky about that. I’ve tried and tried to have it in the past couple weeks but I guess this flu-like ickyness I’ve endured isn’t fooling my taste buds into thinking I have an actual cold…enough for chicken soup. Stupid taste buds.

As you can see I’ve been graduating up the rungs to more solid foods. I feel a lot better and can clearly see how I have indeed turned a corner this week. I still have very little energy but not as nauseous and achy all over. Mostly a general pain throbbing through my abdomen, not unlike the one I experienced after my laproscopy back in November. No amount of pain killers make it go away entirely but I keep taking one of them just to keep it somewhat under control so I’m not totally miserable. Kat brought me a cookbook yesterday that she bought for us to work on together back in February. It’s called I CAN’T CHEW! - Foods to Eat when Undergoing Cancer Therapies. So far, I am really only interested in the first two sections: all smoothies and soups. Eventually, I hope to move up to meatloafs and somewhat more solid stuffs like that. Thank you everyone who has offered to make and send me food. Back in the beginning of all this we really just needed meals to grab so we wouldn’t forget to eat. Now it’s more difficult for us, since we eat completely different things now and it’s hard to know (see above!) what I’m going to want to eat and when I want to eat it. We’re doing alright for now but thank you for your offers to make and bring us more food. I’d like to take a rain check on those offers for now!

I think I’ll make that Jamba Juice request from my sister now…. TTFN *that’s Tigger talk for Ta-Ta-For-Now!