A New Taste Sensation?

I had another infusion of Cytoxin on Wednesday and my booster shot of Neulasta yesterday. The Neulasta is to "jump start" the bone marrow to produce more white blood cells. I may experience a little soreness in my big bones but so far have not. I've been fortunate so far avoiding a lot of the the discomfort that others may experience. In case you're thinking the same thing I did, I read somewhere that the degree of side effects is unrelated to the effectiveness of the treatment. I'm anticipating a very good outcome.

My meals have been pretty good and we are getting a little more adventuresome. Meat seems to stay with me and that may have something to do with the prednizone. Chopped steak is my friend. It's good with an egg and toast for breakfast, makes a quick lunch, and have had it for dinner as well. It's easy to get into a rut so we went for a new taste sensation last night: Enchiladas - and remember cheese is not a good idea. I'd recommend this recipe for people who need a low Tyramine diet but I will also include instructions for those who don't. The full recipe is a friends recipe from over 30 years ago and it is great. I modified the "filling" from a recipe I found on a migraine free cooking blog by Heidi Gunderson. Obviously I'm concerned about a Low Tyramine diet and not migraine free cooking so some of my ingredients (spices?) may not be appropriate for people with migraines. I've included a link to her blog below and in the sidebar.

Eat Good Food, Be Kind, Tell the Truth

Click below for the collection of recipes or for an easy to print copy of a single recipe.

Collection of Recipes

Migraine Free Cooking

Enchiladas We made the enchiladas last night and they were very good. I was skeptical about the cream cheese but enjoyed it very much. Since I should avoid leftover food, I had an enchilada with a fried egg (over easy) for breakfast the next morning.

Frustration is a Self-Inflicted Injury

It's not my line. Brendan Harris, a Minnesota Twins third baseman was quoted saying this during spring training. He attributed it to Sage Rosenfels, a Viking backup quarterback. Last night Denard Span got tossed from the Twins game for showing some frustration with an umpire's called third strike. He injured his character and the team's chances of winning. To his credit, he said so in the paper. It is interesting that elite atheletes have to work hard to keep their emotions in check. It's a lesson we can all learn from - especially me.

Frustration and prednisone are a bad combination. The prednisone gives me tunnel vision and today I felt confused by my treatment plan and experience in the doctor's office. They actually came through and cleared everything up including calling me at home later with more details I had asked for and explaining why some of the things that happened had happened. Today was a good reminder that I don't need any self-inflicted injuries. I'll focus on what I have control over including my diet, my attitude, and asking good questions.

Speaking of taking control, my endocronologist asked for me to fax in a food/exercise log each week. I use mainly to record my blood glucose levels. In the spirit of things I posted a link for a simple Food Diary to track what you eat and activity. There is space for other stuff you might want to include too. There was a little conceren that I had lost weight the past week - about 8-10 pounds. But if you start out a little chubby, eat simpler healthier foods, cut out snacks, have no cheese, quit drinking alchohol, and are a little more diligent about getting some exercise (walking) you lose weight. Hard to believe.

Eat Good Food, Be Kind, Tell the Truth

Forgot a key ingredient for an enchilada recipe. Didn't get frustrated - making progress in little ways. Maybe tomorrow.

Eating Out: Fast Food, Restaurants, and Friends

Some friends offered to bring us lunch this weekend from a great sandwich shop in the warehouse district. It got me thinking about eating out and what my options may be. I guess the short answer is they are not real good. There really isn't any tyramine-free fast food. I've included some links below to websites for fast food places. Be sure to not only look at the nutritional information and/or components but the actual ingredients as well. For instance, a Big Mac has 7 "components" but the bun itself has at least 33 ingredients much of which is heavy on soy and other stuff you don't want. In fact, here are the top 10 most common fast food ingredients:

10. Citric Acid: The Most Common Preservative
9. High-fructose Corn Syrup: The Most Common Sweetener
8. Caramel Color: The Most Common Color Additive
7. Salt: The Most Common Flavor or Spice
6. Monosodium Glutamate: The Most Common Flavor Enhancer
5. Niacin: The Most Common Nutrient
4. Soybean Oil: The Most Common Oil or Fat
3. Mono- and Diglycerides: The Most Common Emulsifiers
2. Xanthan Gum: The Most Common Stabilizer or Thickener
1. Chicken: The Most Common Meat Product

And the websites for ingredient information (just click on the name):

McDonald’s

Burger King

Taco Bell

Arby’s & Wendy’s

Chipotle

Noodles and Company

I included Chipotle and Noodles and Company at my wife's suggestion. And while they may be better than the rest they still don't look like a real good choice to me. But in a pinch you could probably find something there. I'd rather go to a store and buy a fresh apple, cucumber, and roll.

I won't eat fast food for sure, and restaurants aren't much better. Sauces, gravies, soups and salads are not prepared from scratch. They use extracts and other ingredients that you don't want in a low-tyramine diet. I travel for work and will be "forced" to eat in restaurants occasionally. It's not going to be easy to tell what is in my food, so I'll ask questions and go simple.

So what about my friends who offered to bring lunch? Friends are great - you can just tell them what's up and they are very receptive. But it's the same thing really. It's all about asking good questions about the food and preparation, making good choices, and when push comes to shove asking yourself, "Is this worth having a serious event over?"

Eunice and I like to cook and it's going to be better for me to cook at home and invite friends over. It's fun, safe, and not as difficult or time consuming as you may think. It is also less expensive and creates less waste.

The best option is for me to make my own food. That's what we did last night with some friends. We had a great Lemon Roast Chicken.

Eat Good Food, Be Kind, Tell the Truth

Click below for the collection of recipes or for an easy to print copy of a single recipe.

Collection of Recipes

Lemon Roasted Chicken
We buy our chickens with the help of a good friend from a local farmer who delivers them frozen. They are very fresh. We also happened to purchase half chickens which reduces leftovers.

Did You Know?

I'm going to add a link that I found helpful. It is on Low Tyramine Diets. It's by folks at Northwestern Memorial Hospital dated November, 2008. Apparently the study of Tyramine content in food is evolving and this article is a good summary of more recent studies about what you can and can't eat - short and sweet.

I wondered if caffeine-free diet drinks would be OK. I tried a diet cola (6oz) yesterday and it didn't really agree with me. I read later that Aspertame is something you might want to avoid.

Frito's have 3 ingredients: whole corn, corn oil, salt. You remember those "walking tacos" you ate at Pee Wee hockey tournaments where you put chili, lettuce, and cheese in the bag and ate it with a spoon? Well, they weren't all that bad for you in terms of tyramine. Forget the cheese.

Had hamburgers for dinner last night and we made Tomato Jam to put on them.

Eat Good Food, Be Kind, Tell the Truth

Click below for the collection of recipes or for an easy to print copy of a single recipe.

Collection of Recipes

Tomato Jam
This is a tastier, chunkier replacement for ketchup. Great on burgers or anything else on which you might use ketchup.

A New Beginning

Two of the most common side effects of chemotherapy are fatigue and insomnia. Doesn't seem fair but that's the way it is. I've been sleeping well but do have more time on my hands. I thought I'd start a blog as a journal to look back on. You are welcome to join me.

Over 11 years ago I was diagnosed with cancer; a mixed-cell follicular lymphoma - a slow growing lymphoma. I went through a CHOPS chemotherapy routine and later Rituxan. Things went well until last month when a CT Scan showed growth and a biopsy revealed an additional, more aggressive, Large B-cell Lymphoma. That's the lymphoma part.

As I told my family about my cancer and prepared for chemotherapy I did some good and not so good things. My wife, Eunice, was fully involved but my daughter, Ann, pointed out that we don't communicate well as a family out loud in conversation especially about my cancer. Frankly there hasn't been a lot to talk about for a while but there is now. And she and my son were 10 and 8 when I was first diagnosed so I was remiss in not saying more over the years. So this blog is for them too and maybe it will start many a conversation. Welcome to my family.

As far as my treatment, think of it in Days with Day 1 (D1) being the start of treatment. The link for Chemocare in the sidebar is a good source of information about the drugs, side effects, precautions, etc.

D1: Rituxan, Cytoxan, and Etoposide (VP-16), (7 hour day). Start taking Prednisone (two 50mg tabs per day) and Procarbazine, or Mutulane (three 50mg tabs per day). Put them all together and you get R-CEPP which is the name of my treatment. It's fairly aggessive. More later on the Procarbazine and its food implications.

D2: Etoposide (2 hour day)

D3: Etoposide (2 hour day)

D8: Cytoxan (2 hour day)

D9: Neulasta (booster shot for white blood cells in and out)

Day 28: Start the cycle again for six times or Q4W x 6.

I started my first cycle April 21.

Prednisone is a tough drug for diabetics. It increases your blood sugar dramatically and 100mgs/day is a massive dose. I normally take Lantus insulin for a baseline 24 hour coverage and use a sliding scale of novolog for meals and corrections. My endocronologist suggested taking 25 units of NPH with each dose or half the #mgs of Prednisone for each dose. This is working well. My thanks to her. That's the biggest part for diabetes.

Now for food. Procarbazine has many dietary or food restrictions. Alcohol and cheese are the key ones but the list goes on and on. Without going into a lot of detail Procarbazine interferes with the inactivation of Tyramine in various foods so that "serious events" can happen. They put cardiac failure at the end of the list which I suppose is appropriate. So we are focusing on fresh, natural, and packaged foods with less than 5 ingredients.

I should mention that I am also lactose intolerant but almost all the drugs I am taking cause constipation. I am reintroducing dairy products, including eggs, into my diet and so far so good. There's always a silver lining.

So what am I eating? Good stuff actually. I was worried at first but we've (my wife and I) have gotten into the search for food that will avoid a "serious event."

Breakfasts:

Egg burritos made with onions, other fresh vegetables, scrambled eggs, a little salsa (less than 5 ingredients), no cheese, rolled in a tortilla.

Lunch:

We found uncured hot dogs with 3 ingredients. I had one on a bun with a little mustard and it was great. I'm not a big lunch eater but enjoyed it.

Dinner:

Rice with chopped panned fried skinless chicken breasts, a little salsa, baby peas, with a fried egg (over easy) on top. The leftovers shouldn't be kept more than 2 days so it makes a great breakfast too. I "harvested" this idea from my brother-in-law. But if you are having guests and want to prepare something for all sorts of different tastes and/or preferences you can place all the ingredients (meat, salsa, vegetables, seafood, eggs, etc.) in separate bowls and people can use what they prefer. Use rice, tortilla chips or something else for a base. He calls it "Pile On" and it is good - be creative.

Beverages:

I have an 8oz cup of coffee in the morning and drink a lot of water everyday (2 qts)

Eat Good Food, Be Kind, Tell the Truth!

I'm just getting started, I like to cook, and the food will get more interesting!