Chemo & Food Matters

Round 8 of chemo was uneventful and I have had more energy lately than usual. I have been able to work more hours and even got some exercise moving supplies to the new lab space at Rawls from the various places I had stuff stashed (home, my office, and the smaller space we've been operating in). Aidan has been very sick for the past week so we are both pretty much quarantined. I miss him. The students return soon so I've put a "No Germ Zone" sign outside my office to remind them that my immune system is severely compromised. My colleagues are very concerned with these issues, however, some of the undergrads don't really think about it, barge in, and spew their germs when they cough all over my office. Not only does this completely stress me out, I have to suppress the urge to make them sanitize my office. After all, it could hurt their self esteem to call them out on it-- millennials are sensitive. Luckily, I just have a few more months to go on chemo and then (I hope) my numbers will go up to normal. 

Lately most of my mental energy has been on food. For a few weeks my glucose was very high and we couldn't figure out why. My diet remains low calorie, minimum 80% fat calories (often higher), and my carbs (after deducting 1/2 of my fiber) stay around 10 grams per day. This combination should keep my glucose very low, yet it was creeping up in the 90's and occasionally low 100's. Ok, I know that for a diabetic this is very low glucose, however, for someone trying to starve cancer it's best to stay in the 70's or 80's. After quite a bit of reading, I discovered that powdered sweeteners could be the problem. Powdered stevia or other natural sweeteners that have no glycemic index do occasionally have fillers and additives that do have a glycemic index. This includes pretty much all powders, granules, etc. To test this, I eliminated all powdered sweetener of any kind and started using only sweet drops (stevia), pure liquid sucralose, and liquid monk fruit extract. My glucose measurements immediately dropped and have stayed low since, even through the chemo. I went to Drug Emporium and found bottles of flavored sweet drop stevia. Now I have the choice to sweeten my coffee or whipped cream with chocolate, vanilla, pumpkin spice, or cinnamon flavored pure stevia. This opens up a whole new level of sweetened "breads," "pancakes," and other recipes that I plan to try out. Just one more way to enjoy my food while starving the cancer! For today I plan to put together a crock pot keto-friendly chili that the whole family can enjoy. I will add some miracle noodle "rice" to mine so that I have a little more fiber. I figure the rest of the family probably wouldn't appreciate the colon blow (or maybe they would, I'm not quite sure).  

Next visit to Houston for a checkup is January 30-ish.