Chemo and food

The day I got admitted to the hospital to start my chemo therapy my new doctor friend talked about a lot of details of my upcoming therapy. I did not care. He told us that my immune system would be shut down so I had to be careful around people. Again I did not care. Then he talked about food. Because of my non existant immune system I was not allowed to eat anything that was not cooked and our fridge had to be cleaned once a week. He then listed the things I was not allowed to eat. He mentioned fruit that cannot be peeled and salad. I freaked out! Complete meltdown. I can loose my hair, be in the hopsital for months, but not being allowed to eat salad and fruit makes me cry like a baby. You have to know I love salad. There is hardly anything better than a salad bar and for the next months I was not allowed to eat salad and strawberries. I devour strawberries!!!

The first months or two I did not eat any, mom would not let me. Then one day as we were driving home from the hospital and I was in a particular festive mood. Suddenly my mom stopped in front of my favorite salad bar and told me to get out. I was confused and told her I could not go in because of the many people with their many germs and I was not allowed to eat salad anyway. She just informed me that we would go in, sit as far away from the other people as possible and eat salad. But I was not allowed to tell anybody. I.was. in. heaven. I got myself a large salad and ate it all (I hardly ate anything at all back then). Luckily, my body tolerated it all. This was a huge step for my mom who usually sticks very tightly to the doctor's rules. However, this became our new tradition. Every time my mom picked me up from the hospital we ate a salad. It became my motivation. I am so thankful that my mom disobeyed the doctor that day. Sometimes you just have to break rules :)

Towards the end of my therapy I completely lost my appetite and since I never had my fat to loose, I got a feeding tube. I hated it. It was constantly infected and I was so happy when it was removed after three months.