Sunday, June 15, 2008

Psycho cravings

Late last week, Vee found me in the kitchen juicing a ruby red grapefruit and asked what I was doing. I explained that I was thirsty and felt like something citrusy...nothing wrong with that you might add but for the fact that it was 2 in the morning and I was standing in my PJ's. I actually had had this dream about this beautiful cocktail I was sharing with Vee when I woke up and felt this urge to drink something as close to it as I could.

For the first few days after chemo, I get the weirdest psycho food cravings ever. No one knows what kind of food or drink I want next, not even myself. One minute I feel like one thing and the next just the thought of the exact same thing makes me want to puke.

These psychotic episodes are a side effect of Dexamethasone, a type of steroid I have to take during and three days post chemo. Aside from the food cravings it also makes you hyper meaning I find it difficult to get a good night's sleep while I'm on these. They've given me some sleeping tablets to counter this effect but the one I took last night didn't seem to work all that well.

Anyhow I crave anything fruity, but I can't drink too many processed fruit juices with the added sugar because of my diabetes.....Dexamethasone also sends your blood sugar levels sky rocketing to levels way past the safe margins....but there's nothing to combat this side effect.

I just finished drinking three glasses of Apple, Mango & Banana juice as a treat and I'm already looking forward to drinking a hot chocolate with condensed milk later on this afternoon or am I ?...Oh and I just had a kebab with chilli sauce for lunch...Psycho cravings !!

3 comments:

Lollipop Goldstein said...

Must make grocery stopping difficult. Can you drink the juice if it's not the processed fruit drinks--I mean, can you drink more of it if it's freshly squeezed?

Alex said...

Mel,

I think that the amount of sugar in freshly squeezed juice ought to be much lighter in regards to sugar content than the processed equivalent and I can always water down either options although it doesn't quite satisfy my craving this way... :)

Anonymous said...

Hi Alex,

Just checking in to see how you are doing. It sounds like you are able to eat pretty well and haven't had any everything tastes like cardboard or tin foil moments. A small blessing with all the other stuff you have to deal with.

I am glad to hear you are bearing up well through chemo. Keep hanging in there my friend.

Carole