Protein, music, new hair

Round Two of chemo was last week. This time it was outpatient, which meant one full day at the hospital being pumped with drugs, then a half-day of hydration (being pumped with saline), and then two more days at home, toting a fetching shoulder bag that held a battery-operated pump hooked to a smaller bag of drugs hooked into a vein in my chest.

The upside of home chemo is obvious: rather than spending days in a hospital environment, with its ongoing chorus of beeping machines and people monitoring your pee (how much and how often), you get to veg out in your own bed, eating your own food, watching whatever awful movies you feel like.

On the other hand, the nice thing about being in the hospital is the wealth of resource specialists that come to visit. (I admit that I've pretty much thrown open the doors and said I'd be happy to meet with anyone who's around. It's as much professional interest as personal need.)

So Tuesday was auricular acupuncture (that's needles in yer ears), which was interesting, though I don't know whether I was supposed to feel different; an insanely good massage from a guy with big, warm hands; and art therapy (we made Valentine's Day cards with stickers, which was delightfully like being in daycare).

On Wednesday I had a great chat with nutritionist Carol Sullivan. One of the most important things she pointed out was that I should be getting at least 75g of protein a day, or 130 percent of the RDA.

She broke it down into portions: an ounce of chicken; 2 ounces of feta; a cup of ice cream; a half-cup of black beans each count as about 8g of protein. But that still seemed like a tough task — I don't eat huge portions at the best of time, and certainly not when I'm under the weather. How was I going to get through four and a half cups of beans a day???

As it turned out, it was easy. A cheese omelette for breakfast, plus a fruit smoothie with Greek yogurt, took care of around 24g. Baked beans and cheese on toast for lunch (or an Anna's Taqueria chicken taco with beans and sour-cream-filled guacamole) knocked out a few more. With an afternoon nibble on cottage cheese, poached fish for dinner, and a late-nite ice cream snacky, I was doing well.

And once I realized that Odwalla does shakes with double-digit protein counts, that made things even easier.

Wednesday was also my second music therapy class, which I continue to love.

And today I had my remaining hair shaved off and got a kinda kicky '60s wig.

Those last two sentences come together in the following video, my first attempt in iMovie. Enjoy!