Six Cans

Some of you wonderful people out there might be feeling bad that I'm reduced to taking nourishment by food tube. I'd like to take a moment to address any concerns that might be lurking around this issue:

First of all, without the food tube life would be a constant battle to keep my weight up. And one I would be losing. The pain in my tongue is reduced from what it was two weeks ago, but it's still there. And the radiation has limited the movement of my tongue in any case, so that I'm not confident that any solid food I would take orally would "go down the right pipe." And the idea of any serious choking at this point is awfully scary.

This morning, my weight was 166 pounds -- which is an excellent weight for me. And it feels like I should be able to keep this weight for the duration of my treatment.

Second, the nourishment that the Jevity product provides has been most carefully worked out to supply everything that my body needs. Including things like fiber. If I were eating orally, my choices in food right now would focus around "What can I eat?" rather than "What would be the most nourishing thing for me to eat?"

So this just occurred to me yesterday: I am probably "eating" better over this last week or two than I have eaten in years! Now Deb is a wonderful cook and she enjoys the activity -- so that dinners around our house are almost always healthy, delicious and well balanced. But my choices for lunch before my treatment started were... ummm... based on convenience and taste (read: Wendy's or Carmine's Pizza) rather than nutrition.

So I am deeply grateful that this one aspect of surviving well through the treatment regimen is relatively easy and so completely successful.

But please do me a favor and don't ask something like: "Okay Randy, your choice of Jevity or Moo Shu Pork?" Please. Just don't go there.