Days of Cinnamon and Ginger

Days of Cinnamon and Ginger

Kendall has left for Arkansas where her friend is throwing herself a birthday party. Paige will be in early tomorrow. I’ve made the trip out to the CCI to have my “sunburned” (radiation burned) back salved and bandaged. I caught a chemo nurse once and a nurse at radiation once. Tomorrow is Saturday so, if Paige doesn’t show up early, I’ll be visiting the vet’s office. The reception crew has volunteered for back duty -- “Anytime after 7:30,” they said. Isn’t this fun!
Actually, this is much more fun than the past 3 weeks have been. For three weeks, I’ve fought nausea. Everyone, cheerfully and enthusiastically, offered advice. This would have been helpful (I hope) if this episode had been a usual side effect. It wasn’t.

I was not lying around, or walking around, feeling nauseous and did not need the compazine to settle my stomach. My problem had more to do with swallowing but it was not the swallowing problem the community was ready to treat. Everyone wanted to break out that expensive bottle of medicine the doctor had prescribed. Yes, the “sunburned” esophagus was a problem but only because it made swallowing past the bubble much more painful. Ever try to swallow past a bubble? That’s how I felt during most of the past 3 weeks. Ugh!

Everyone was afraid I’d get dehydrated and, because I wasn’t eating properly, would lose weight. Because I have a really bad gag response (to which my dentist will attest), I was having problems with everything. I tried the thoroughly chilled Ensure and the ersatz Ensure but that tasted awful and, if I could swallow it, would not stay down. Vanilla milkshakes were soothing and really cool and could be sipped through a straw for an hour or so. Chicken soup seemed to be the best substitute for food. I call it a substitute because I was spooning up oriental noodles in chicken broth, not the sort of soup I’d have usually called chicken soup.

Hard cinnamon candies and ginger chews helped get me through the first 10 days. As directed, I took compazine before I went for radiation and then popped a ginger chew to suck on to keep my stomach in some state of equilibrium. Fortunately, I had only 4 days of radiation during this time. Finally, I had to have something that my system identified as food. Chicken doesn’t do it for me so Kendall and I bought cube steaks which she smothered in a ginger broth. Ah, ginger broth. Wonderful stuff. As I began to gain some strength, my brain began to work again and I realized that the pressure I was feeling, the pressure which was contributing to the stomach and esophagus problems, was my own fault. During those days of diagnosis, I was told I had diverticulitis. Somehow, during the weeks of treatment, I’d forgotten to baby my condition. Now, I can’t say whether I had a side effect of treatment or of non-treatment. I do know I feel better and am eating. And, do I have plans for this weekend!