You Gotta Eat and You'll Need Help

Before cancer, I took care of everyone in the caregiver sense. I ran a solo business and saw 25+ clients per week, I was the housewife who took care of 2 dogs and all of the cleaning and food prep. I was the family member that everyone leaned on when they needed to mentally vent about whatever stress was going on in their life.

When cancer hit, I had to check out who I used to be and had to become someone that was foreign to me. I had to ask for help, and the biggest issue was food prep. The following are 3 ideas to consider when going through ovarian cancer and chemotherapy.

Keep tabs on the food you can tolerate

Cancer drugs are tough on your body, especially your digestive system. I became a raging Carb Queen because of the steroids. I started keeping tabs on how my tastebuds and stomach felt as the weeks came and went. I won't lie - it gets frustrating at times as your body changes tolerance to foods.

For example, for 5 straight days after a chemo infusion, I couldn't tolerate my morning cup of coffee. Then for some reason, when I awoke on day 6, it was a joyous occasion to enjoy my coffee. Keeping track of what you can tolerate will be valuable info to the people who want to drop off food. It's amazing who wants to cook for you.

Let your tribe know your chemo weeks

From experience, this is the worst week to experience, and you will be exhausted and feeling like poo. The last thing you will want to do is to think about cooking and making food for yourself. This is where pre-planning can really help you.

After the first infusion out of 6, I found out that I craved broth-based soups with bread and any kind of fruit to quench my thirst. Saltine crackers helped too. Soup was actually my go-to meal with fresh bread. I couldn't tolerate animal protein, cheese or dairy, and any cream-based soups. The winner and go-to soups were all vegetable-based and in a light broth. My friends loved to make a huge batch of it for me, and I used to order soup from a local restaurant and freeze it when I got home so I could thaw it whenever I wanted.

Keep those GC's to celebrate 

You will find that people just don't have the time to cook, so they will drop off a gift certificate (GC) to a restaurant that delivers.

Save those GC's! Use them for a celebration where you are feeling strong and can handle any kind of food. It truly is special when you are having a great day and are eating well. So celebrate it!

Biggest take-a-way...

Be upfront about what you need. Be honest about your food tolerances and allow those special people in your life that really listen to you and TELL them what you need.

Don't allow someone to guess or assume that Aunt Betty's mac-n-cheese is what you need to fatten you up. You need to figure out how to eat while on treatment as food will give you that vital energy your body desperately needs to fight off cancer.