Day: March 10, 2009

I’m going to get a personal chef (LOL)

I’m going to get a personal chef.  Or rather, I’m going to have someone cook me some food once a week.

Getting cancer young sucks for many reasons, but one of which is that all your friends are too busy to make their own food, let alone do the typical food brigade.  But later in life, when most people get cancer, people are retired, or at least their children are grown.  I know that my mother has been involved in several food support networks:  someone brings over soup and a casserole once a week or something.

Well, here in NYC, alienating move-it-or-lose-it NYC, you can’t find friends with the time, energy or skill to make you food and deliver it (and I don’t blame them!!!).

BUT you can find someone who you can pay to do it for you.  In NYC you can get just about everything delivered… for a price.  From you groceries, to custom shopped clothing, to Cocaine: someone will deliver it.

So I emailed with someone whose card was up on the board at my favorite coffee shop.  Hopefully this works. out.

Lets try it, even if you only can cover through the end of March.  Even those three weeks will be a relief for me.  And if it works, maybe you can set me up with someone when you leave.

Why don’t you propose some specific dishes (a grain or pasta salad, a casserole/baked dish that I can reheat, and a soup.)

I have lesions in my mouth and on my tongue.  (fun, right?)   I have noticed that acids hurt my mouth really badly, and that things like bread crust also hurt a lot, so no tomatos, citrus, or nuts.  Cheese, Cottage Cheese, pasta, Oatmeal, soft breads are all good.  I’ve been told that beets are great for chemo, but I haven’t made any lately.  I should go try some, but I’m banned from all Buffet/Salad bars (e.g. Whole Foods) b/c I’m immunosuppressed.

I can’t quite quantify what $50/hr means in terms of volume of food.  Can you propose some specific dishes, and estimate how long the whole thing would take, what ingredients would costs, and assuming it is within my budget, we’ll go forward.

I would be happy to start this as soon as you can

Thanks,

m

On Mar 9, 2009, at 10:34 PM, DBN wrote:

Hi,

Thank you for getting in touch with me. I would be interested in working with you, but want to let you know that I will be moving out of Brooklyn at the end of March. Although this would be a short term arrangement, I am happy to cook for you, and could arrange for someone to take over when I leave.

I generally charge $50/hr for my services, and charge for ingredients separately, however this is negotiable.  I can propose specific dishes, or since you gave me guidelines of what you are looking for, I could go ahead and prepare things that would be more gentle on your system, and you would not need to select the menu.

I hope that your treatments are not too difficult on your body, and that you are headed for a speedy recovery.

Please let me know if you’d like to work together.

Best,
DBN

Dermatologist versus Oncologist

My Oncologist freaked out on me when he realized I was using Taclonex, a topical steroid.  I was given it by my dermatologist to treat what I know know was Reiter’s Syndrome.  I didn’t realize any of it was a problem.  My oncologist freaked out so much that I went into a full dysesthesia attack.  Fun.

So I stopped the Taclonex, even though it was working on the Reiter’s Syndrome.

Today, I told my dermatologist this story, and he pooh-pooh’ed the concerns of the oncologist, citing several studies that showed that topical steriods do not make it into the bloodstream.  And at the same time was a touch defensive, trying to reassure me that he would never have give me something if he was not 100% confident it was safe.

So it doesn’t make it through my skin into my bloodstream… but I had *skin cancer*.  Or am I falsely relating the surface with the site of the original cancer.  When the real risk are those rogue cells floating in my bloodstream?

So whose instructions do I follow?  How much pain can I take from my fingers?  How much of the pain is the infections (which I go a prescription for)?  With the infections under control, will I get some of my fine motor skills back? (I’ve been having trouble picking up pills, keys, gummi bears, and other small objects b/c the tips of my fingers are so sore and my finger nails are mostly gone.  Also, opening the magnetic clasp on my computer is a comic affair: I find some spoon, or USB cable, or the corner of my iPod Touch, slip it in, and lift it up two or three inches, and let gravity pull the bottom half away from the top half (it usually lands on the table with a thud)

So whose instructions do I follow?