11 September 2023
Yesterday was a good day diarrhea-wise and I eventually started to feel OK towards the end of the day. This morning started with diarrhea around 7:30 am and it’s continued and I feel terrible. Not an auspicious start to the day nor a good harbinger for tomorrows double drug dose.
I called my friend Daryl and canceled tonight. I was going to see Daryl and Bill’s new place at the Vee, but I just don’t trust myself too far away from the bathroom. To add insult to injury, for some reason CVS will not refill my Losartin (blood pressure) medicine even though there is one refill left on the prescription. I called my GP’s office and had them transfer the prescription over to Walgreens. I intend to do that with all my prescriptions. Partly, it’s not CVS’s fault. The one I use is probably one of the busiest in the county and they have a pretty significant turn over in personnel, so I’m sure things get confused and lost.
Last night before turning out the lights, I watched a YouTube video of Chef Jean-Pierre cooking Beef Stroganoff (Stroganov). It’s an interesting video and he lays to rest whether the dish is French, Italian, Russian, etc. and quotes the authoritative source Larousse Gastronomique, the “bible” of chefs. It was originally published in 1938 and was recently re-issued in 2009. The dish was created by a French chef working for a Russian Count Stroganov. Somehow, the spelling evolved into stroganoff later.
I heard of Larousse Gastronomique many years ago but the 1938 version was all in French and I decided my French wasn’t good enough to think about purchasing it. I assume the 2009 re-issue is in English and I ordered it off Amazon after watching Chef Jean-Pierre’s YouTube video. It should arrive today. It’s really for professional chefs but I’ve always wanted a copy and reviews on Amazon say it is eminently readable and I do love reading cookbooks. If nothing else, it’ll serve as an excellent reference publication.
Maybe it’ll have some recipes to stop me up and help abate my diarrhea. I did Google that and found that in reality, I’m eating pretty much what I should be eating with diarrhea. I also followed the advice of Judith and boiled some eggs to add a little protein. I still do a good bit of the BRATT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast and tea) along with less fiber. My two weaknesses are caffeine (coffee in the morning) and sweets.
I have no idea how long I’ll be at the cancer center tomorrow. First will be a blood test to determine deficiencies then my pre-infusion cocktail of zorfran (anti nausea), pepsid (coating stomach), Benadryl (antihistamine), and dexamethasone (steroid and anti nausea). When the blood test comes back, they’ll administer magnesium if low. The magnesium will take an hour, Taxol will take 1-1 1/2 hours and the Herceptin probably two hours. That’s if all goes according to plan.
I was scheduled to go to dinner with Nancy and Michel tomorrow but I may have to change that to a simple visit either at their house or mine. With the way I feel today, I’m unsure how well tomorrow will go. Luckily, they are flexible.
I really do appreciate how my friends check up on me. I’ve never been one to talk much on the phone but Judith called yesterday to check on me, so did Ron in Miami and Joel. I spent some time talking with Chris catching up on Tucker’s escapades and goings on in the neighborhood. My cousin Jimmie and I had our weekly phone call yesterday as well. The day before I talked with cousin Jo in San Antonio. Saturday was football day and Natalie (LSU grad) texted me about the Ole Miss/Tulane ball game and asked how I was doing. Michael in Virginia also emailed me to check on me. I feel much cared for and looked after.
There was no morning walk but I did get back to my half grapefruit routine. I decided I didn’t need the Budesonide any more. Dr. Velez suggested I needed it only for a week and as it was a steroid, it was raising my blood sugar and I couldn’t eat grapefruit while on the drug. I prefer the grapefruit. Also, whenever I took the medicine, it had a very foul smell. It’s funny how some medications have a really distinctive smell.
I remember years ago as a kid that all medications were intentionally made to taste bad to prevent kids from overdosing. Somewhere along the line that requirement was relaxed and now you can buy all kinds of kids over-the-counter medicines that taste good (or at least not bad). One bad taste that sticks out in my mind as a kid was Milk of Magnesia. Mom was a firm believer in that and it tasted like a chalk milkshake. Ugh! The worst, of course, was castor oil.
Thanks for reading my blog. Today is mostly word diarrhea. I’ll try to do better next time. Stay tuned!
