In an effort to try to keep organized, and if anyone is reading the blog, I added "part 4" to the title.
My ongoing disease has taken charge of my life and thrown my bariatrics into the background. It is still there, and will always be, but you can rest assured that if you have had the surgery, there will come a time for you when you will not think about food and what you can eat forever. It will start to come naturally.
I still have to remember that I am a gastric bypass patient and it comes up quite often at the hospital. Many of the doctors don't really know details of the procedure, or the various things I must do to insure they don't injure me because of their ignorance.
I spent an hour with a clinical dietician yesterday. Her specialty is in dealing with Pancreatic cancer, and cancer in general. She was brilliant! She asked me lots of questions and listened to and wrote down my answers, until she had a really clear idea of my dilemma. She was very knowledgeable on the subject of bariatrics since their practice also does them. I felt comfortable.
- Cancer eats more than normal cells. This is why people lose weight when they get cancer. It isn't for any other reason.
- My particular problem is mal-absorption. My body isn't digesting and extracting the nutrients in the food. This is because I had part of my pancreas removed. It either hasn't had time to recover and start working again, or it may never recover enough. We don't know because it is too soon after the surgery to tell. Top this off with the cancer eating more than regular cells, and I have been losing weight. Way too much weight. I am losing muscle as well as fat.
So, my treatment is to increase my caloric intake. Not just that, but to increase the quality of the increased intake. She told me that I will need to eat around 2000 calories a day. That sounds like heaven to a gastric bypass patient, but it is going to be a real chore. We decided to try to use protein drinks, milk and protein bars to accomplish the goal. I haven't added milk to my diet for a long time, but I did drink protein drinks and eat the bars before I got sick. I stopped because they no longer tasted good. I hated that because everything I ate had to have chocolate in it, and chocolate stopped tasting good to me. I know, it's horrible to think about not having chocolate in my diet.
My other dietary habits were still sticking pretty close to the bariatric lifestyle, so I am OK there. I have splurged a bit and didn't always eat protein with each meal, but now, I will try to go back to that.
Next, I've had my second clinical treatment (yesterday). It hurt just as much as the first one. Now, I have 4 dots on each arm and thigh. I went to bed last night feeling a bit of flu like symptoms, but that is normal for this treatment. If it works, I will be cured because my immune system will fight and kill any cancer that is left. Taking the enzymes to improve absorption of the nutrients in my food, and the clinical trial, along with radiation and chemo should either kill me, or make me stronger.
I start chemo next week which will consist of two different drugs. One will be given to me next week, and the other along with my radiation therapy. I was told that I probably won't notice too many side effects with the chemo, but I will with radiation therapy because they can't isolate the pancreas from the intestines and abdomen.
The enzymes have caused me a lot of trouble, and they reduced the dosage in order to either build it up slowly, or to find me another type that will cause fewer side effects. So far, after one dose of the new stuff, I am OK.
I may look a bit different, but I feel OK....really!
