the_rck | (no subject)

I am actually fairly hungry right now. It'll be a couple of hours yet before dinner, and about all we've got that I can easily munch on is granola bars and applesauce. I can't make myself dinner early because there isn't anything I can fix that Cordelia will be willing to eat, and she will be quite upset if I make myself dinner and don't feed her. There is a pretty hefty slab of pork left, but I can't actually cut it without hurting myself. I managed to saw off a piece for Cordelia last night, but it was pretty unpleasant, unpleasant enough that I ate baked beans (I like them, at least) rather than try to cut a second piece.

In terms of what I can make for myself, we've got some cheddar chicken sausages (Cordelia won't eat them), some instant oatmeal, some English muffins, a heck of a lot of ramen, and some canned potato soup (which Cordelia also won't eat). Oh, and I can certainly microwave some frozen peas or frozen green beans. That's pretty easy to do.

Cordelia probably could cut herself a piece of pork, but I'm not sure I can get her to try that. She's pretty conservative about that sort of thing.

In terms of what I've eaten today, I've had three granola bars, a small bag of microwave popcorn, four or five slices of cheese, and a cup of applesauce. I'm not sure I'm doing really well by myself with that.

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From:

chomiji

*hugs*

Not that it's any of my business, but how old is she?

(And is there any chance that the other adult in your family can do a grocery run to pick up some things you can eat more easily?)

From:

the_rck

She's twelve so she's old enough to cut something like that herself. She's just very, very reluctant to do it. I think we got past that with bread last winter, but she still won't cut apples (I don't do that for her any more. She prefers them cut but now eats them without cutting rather than try it herself). In this case, I suspect she'd rather complain about being hungry than do anything about it.

I'm not sure Scott will be willing to go out again tonight because he's pretty thoroughly exhausted. I had a chance to ask him to pick something up on his way home, but I thought he was only going to stop at Target (and so did he. He ended up stopping at the pharmacy at our grocery store because traffic back ups forced him to go that way so he figured he might as well pick up my prescription). He might be able to stop tomorrow, but he expects to do the groceries for the week either Saturday or Sunday, on his way home from work.

I think that a big part of the problem is that I'm eating in a different pattern from what I normally do. We just don't know how to buy for it. I make the weekly grocery list, and I go utterly blank when I try to think of things I can eat that don't require much preparation-- I keep getting stuck on apples, applesauce, sliced cheese, and granola bars. Normally, I'd put bananas on the list, too, but they're a bad idea just now due to the meds I'm taking.

From:

chomiji

Do you have eggs? Can you eat them?

Do you have bread and peanut butter?

Do you have a toaster oven?

From:

the_rck

I'm allergic to peanuts, and eggs are a major migraine trigger, so I can't eat either.

We do have a toaster oven.

From:

chomiji

For now, I would make yourself toasted cheese on an English muffin. I know that it's in theory the same as eating a piece of cheese and an English muffin, but it has the added appeal of a prepared, hot food.

If Cordelia would like one too, she can help you. She needs to understand that one of your major jobs at the moment is to get well, Sometimes you will need to pay attention just to yourself.

I know, it's easy to say when it's not your kid. But you are ill right now, and she needs to step up her game a bit, yes?

*hugs*

I am sorry I did not recall the allergy issue. A number of my friends have health challenges and at the moment I can't trust my own memory on who has which. :-/

From:

the_rck

There's no reason you would be aware of my allergies. That's the sort of thing that I expect my local family to track and not anyone else. So Scott and Cordelia and Scott's sister and Scott's parents, I would expect to know. Anybody else... not so much. I developed the peanut allergy in my 30s, so even my mother isn't necessarily going to remember it.

From:

chomiji

No worries. I just don't want to sound like I'm advocating all this stuff that won't work for you when you are already in a fix.

From:

chomiji

Some more nosy questions:

Do you have a microwave?

Do you have a slow cooker/crockpot?

Do you have any local adult resources locally who can help you set up food to eat throughout the week, perhaps by spending a couple of hours cooking over the weekend with you and Cordelia, or who can bring you something? We had offers from our neighbors when I had my breast cancer, and though we didn't need to use them (we also had family nearby, and Karl and Caroline both felt good having something they could do to help), it was good to know that we had that ace in the hole.

Can Cordelia deal with the concept that this is a serious but temporary situation and that you will get better faster if she can step outside her comfort zone? Would being able to help Mom get better give her more of a feeling of control?

From:

the_rck

We have a microwave. I've been using it off and on this week, but some days I just can't get myself to do much more than grab something easy-- Today, for example, I was actually daunted by the simple prospect of opening a package of sausages and putting one in the microwave for 33 seconds. It was pretty ridiculous, but I went for the cheese because it seemed a lot easier.

I think, for Cordelia, some of it is that she feels like she's been stepping up for months now because she kind of has. I broke my foot and sprained my ankle back in March and only really started to be able to walk much in June (and even then, I had to be careful). She's also... Well, she's very, very twelve. She doesn't want to deal with us any more than she has to. She will help when asked specifically, but she'll do it with poor grace, as if she's the most utterly put upon child in the history of ever.

We have a lot of friends who've offered to help. Scott's sister and her family are half an hour away, and Scott's parents are an hour away (they can't help much right now because his mother is recovering from pneumonia, but she should be well by the time I start radiation).

From:

chomiji

OK. I would take advantage of any of your offered help. I would specifically request foods that can be portioned out ahead of time and nuked: pasta dishes (lasagna works especially well, but macaroni with meat sauce and veggies works too), meat loaf, pieces of baked chicken, things of that sort. Even dishes of plain, steamed veggies, slightly underdone.

Make sure you get a real meal of these types of foods, heated up, at least once a day. Perhaps the hubs can do it when he gets home, and sit down with you to eat it. Then he does not have to make a meal from scratch after a day of work.

Things than can be eaten cold, ad hoc (maybe you don't like or can't eat some of them, but these are things that come to mind):

The aforementioned pieces of baked chicken. (Boneless thighs are very good for this: have your designated chef mix them them with a drizzle of vegetable oil and a couple of teaspoons of some premixed seasoning that you can tolerate. Spread them out on a baking sheet, bake in the over turning once or twice until done. Cool and keep in the fridge to eat as needed.)
Protein bars - like granola bars but with less sugar and starch and more protein. You can get economy-size boxes of the Nature Valley ones some places.
Cottage cheese
Greek yogurt (higher in protein per serving)
Frozen berries or peaches: put in fridge to thaw and use on the yogurt
Fresh strawberries or blueberries if you can work them into the budget
Baby carrots
Pre-washed baby spinach, baby kale, and/or spring mix - for salads or to add to things like sandwiches
Oranges - cut into wedges rather than peel
Ham - buy precooked ham steaks and have someone cut them into cubes and put in a container
Deli meats (like turkey) in moderation - lots of sodium but an easy quick protein hit.
Nutritious cereals with fiber to snack on, with milk or just as a snack food, like wheat chex
Cold veggies, or even defrosted frozen peas
Seltzer water, to mix with 100% fruit juice to make a refreshign drink that will give you nutrients as well
small whole grain tortillas, to roll around meat, cheese, veggies, etc. as a smaller, more interesting sandwich
cooked sweet potatoes - I don't mind these cold, in cubes, and you can nuke them as a snack too - very nutritious

Apples have some fiber and some natural sugar, but they are not really that high in nutrition. Strawberries are really the best nutrition bang for the buck, if you can eat them and they won't blow your budget.

From:

the_rck

I think I shall have to ask for help. Fall is the absolute busiest time for Scott at work, the time when he's most likely to get ambushed with unexpected (and completely unwanted) overtime. They told him at 3 p.m. yesterday that he had to stay four hours over. He's working both days this weekend and can't expect a break until next weekend. (He more or less volunteered for that one on the theory that he needs to build up a lot of goodwill before I start radiation, but it's still hard when he's the only one who can drive.)

I also have to get it through my head that Cordelia is twelve-- All blueberries and strawberries and such no longer have to be hoarded and fed to her. When she was three, yes. When she was six, probably. Not so much any more.

I think the main thing I like about apples is that, if I don't eat them immediately, they'll still be edible a week or two later. I can even store them in a bowl on the counter. Very few types of fruit are like that, and it's very common for us to buy fruit and then discover, when we actually want to eat it, that it's well past being edible. Frozen fruit might be the better way to go.

I don't often drink fruit juice as I haven't found anything I like since Oceanspray changed the formula of all of the ones I did like. I have trouble with apple juice and cider and purple grape juice, so the standbys aren't really great for me. Maybe I should go for prune juice-- It doesn't taste at all bad. It just looks kind of nasty. Mostly, I drink water and carbonated water.

I need to stay low fat and low spice due to digestive issues. Ginger and a moderate amount of garlic are fine, but I can't deal with anything stronger than that. Anything pepper related is right out. I can't even handle paprika which is embarrassing since nobody I know considers that even remotely spicy.

I will keep this list for when I'm making the next grocery list. I might actually be along for that trip, so it'll be more likely that I can find things that interest me. Picking things out when I don't know what there is is fairly difficult. It generally means selecting from the things we've had in the house recently enough that I remember them. Scott generally buys exactly what's on the list and pretty much always the cheapest kind of that that's available.

From:

the_rck

Drat. The only protein bars I can find that don't contain peanuts come from specialty companies and are not at all likely to be in our grocery store. We have a couple of Whole Foods stores in town that might carry something useful, but I hate to assume it.

Neither Nature Valley nor Quaker make any kind of protein bar without peanuts. The grocery store brand is also only available with peanuts.

Why can't they use almonds instead? Almonds are nice and safe.

I'm definitely planning to look for frozen fruit. I don't know yet if I'll get yogurt to go with it. Sometimes, I'm fine with yogurt, and other times, I'm not. It's a texture thing. Of course, I could buy Grape Nuts and mix that and fruit in and most likely be fine.

For the sweet potatoes-- Are you recommending buying pre-cooked or raw and then cooking them myself?

(I'm trying to make this week's grocery list right now

From:

chomiji

I would not buy precooked sweet potatoes unless you can find them without added sugar. Although maybe you can find them cubed and frozen. I know you can get butternut squash that way, and that has a similar nutrition profile.

I have to say I'm kind of worried about what looks like a lack of Vitamin C intake. It's very important for your immune system and for other things too. Most of those juices you mentioned are just slightly better than sweetened sodas, unless they are supplemented with Vitamin C. Can you eat citrus? If not, do you take a multivitamin that includes C?

You should try to roughly do the "strive for 5" thing. I'd suggest one serving of something with a day's supply of vitamin C (citrus, either juice or a fresh fruit, is the easiest: you don't need more than 6 oz. of OJ to get a day's supply), one serving of other fruit (yes, an apple works, but applesauce is not a good substitute), and three servings of non-starchy vegetables (carrots, leafy greens, crucifers like broccoli or Brussels sprouts, maybe green peas but only 1 serving per day - they are pretty starchy).

Re protein bars: I get myself Kind bars, and there are some that are peanut free (but they are made in factories that make other Kind bars that do have peanuts). But they are pricey and not all types are high in protein. This search should show which types are both high in protein and peanut free. Maybe you can get them on sale.

Also: disclaimer — I AM NOT A NUTRITIONIST. But I have spent multiple sessions with nutritionists to adjust my diet to alleviate my own health problems (heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, and yes, cancer).

Edited Date: 2015-09-19 01:01 am (UTC)

From:

the_rck

Because I have GERD, I have to be extremely careful about citrus, so I tend to avoid OJ and oranges and such. Sometimes, if it's very early in the day, I'll risk a clementine.

I used to drink 100% juices with cranberry, but they changed the formulas two or three years ago so that they tasted terrible (and, I suspect, no longer had very much cranberry at all).

I do take a multivitamin and have for years.

My standard diet's pretty limited. Before the diagnosis, I had a mug of coffee and a banana for breakfast every day, then a cheddar chicken sausage and a cup of applesauce or a sliced apple for lunch. If I was really starving at lunch time, I'd add some form of carbohydrate; just what form depended on what we happened to have. Dinner varied a lot more but was pretty much always 2-3 ounces of grilled or baked meat (usually chicken but sometimes turkey or pork) with 1/2 cup to one cup of vegetables (usually broccoli, green peas, or green beans as those are the only vegetables my daughter will eat, but sometimes, we go wild and make her one thing and have summer squash or brussel sprouts or bok choy or cauliflower). And some days, if we got around to it early enough, I'd have a small (less than half a cup) serving of ice cream.

Occasionally, I'll have some cheese or a slice of bread or a tortilla, but those wouldn't necessarily come up every week. And, once in a while, we'll make turkey burgers and have them with buns or we'll make rice or potatoes of some sort.

Scott will sometimes bring home dates or almonds, and I'll snack on those while they're available. They're kind of pricey, so we don't get them very often. We also don't tend to get chips or cookies or such unless one of the three of us is sick.

Oh, and I usually have 2-4 pieces of Dove chocolate some time during the afternoon.

The last time I talked to a nutritionist, she was okay with this diet simply because adding anything meant adding calories. Ideally, from her point of view, I'd cut out the coffee, but when I don't drink coffee I end up taking a 2-3 nap every day.