How big is a serving? The biggest issue with radiation and chemo treatment is HOW MUCH FOOD IS GETTING TO THE STOMACH? I've seen more than one caregiver cry because they don't feel the survivor is getting enough food. The number one question whenever I go to Dana Faber is HOW MUCH DO YOU WEIGH? So I thought I 'd take a little time to talk about serving sizes.
WHICH SIZE CUP SHOULD YOU USE
Now that I am done with treatment and have been given a NED (no evidence of disease) proclamation. My typical serving cup size is a chowder bowl. A Chowder bowl looks like a round tea cup on steroids. It hold about three cups (750 ml) of liquid. Most of the batches I make are around this size. So if you were wondering how much I normally make - there you go.
However, when I was in the middle of treatment a chowder cup would have been futile. At most meals, I would barely be able to eat one tea cup (250 ml). I was still able to make my meals, I just wouldn't eat them. I'd sit down in my big chair in front of the TV and slowly sip my soup. After about an hour, my wife or son would take the cup away, and refill it with a new batch of warm soup.
STOP TALKING ABOUT EATING
When I had my stomach peg, the worst thing a caregiver could do was talk about food. I didn't want to hear it because it was always bad news about how I was not eating enough. I was fully aware I was not eating enough, and I certainly didn't want to hear it from someone I loved about how I was a failure. After a while, my wife and son were smart enough to just walk over, to wherever I was, and silently scoop up my cup, dump it out and replace it with a fresh batch of soup. The goal was to make sure that I always had something fresh and warm to sip on. On a good day, I might eat a whole cup of soup- certainly not enough to sustain proper weight, but because I had a stomach peg, I could fill up that way.
SECOND CANCER - THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS MEAL TIME
I opted to not have a stomach peg the second time. But I had learned a lot from going through cancer the first time. First of all, there is no such thing as meal time. There is no way you are going to consume enough at three meals a day. You need to think more like a hobbit:
- 7:00am – Breakfast
- 9:00am – Second Breakfast
- 11:00am – Elevenses
- 1:00pm – Luncheon
- 4:00pm – Afternoon Tea
- 6:00pm – Dinner
- 8:00pm – Supper
Not every meal is the same, nor will they be the same day to day. It is a crapshoot. Meals will fluctuate randomly and for no apparent reason - maybe it is the smell; maybe it's the temperature; maybe it's the medicine; and maybe it's because we haven't gone poop. Just know that it is going to change - and you are not a failure for it.
This past summer, I was losing weight a lot quicker that I expected. I realized that I had to move from a meal every two hours to a meal every hour. Now some of my meals were a container of Orgain High Protein Shakes, but every hour I "downed" something. This included getting up in the middle of the night to take my pain killers, I'd have a "Cup of something". This entire book is predicated on a CUP OF SOMETHING. Maybe even a cup and a half of something. And maybe we can even sneak in some nutrition into the something.
COMMENTS
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You are so right about not eating regularly. I lost 35 lbs. on my already skinny frame and dont seem to gain any weight. Im on a gtube and have mashed potatoes that have no lumps with lots of butter to be able to swallow. I also drink lots of V8 juice. For treats I eat lots of ice cream and suck on smooth chocolates.
ReplyDeleteMy partner is always trying to give me food I cant eat like pasta and ground meat. I appreciate it but they dont understand that I cant swallow it. Even ground pepper gets stuckin the space below my "tongue". It is difficult to say I cant eat it when they make it especially for me to try.
Im also so sick of burping vanilla from food going into my tube.
Your suggestion for having many meals a day, I feel I would be eating all day as it takes me half an hour to eat it plus the half hour it takes to prepare it.
I have been 100% dependent on my G-tube for over 5 years now and I have some theories about tube feeding and the problems that tubies end up with. 1. Tubies usually become tubies because of massive weight loss, during which time our stomach shrinks tremendously. Once we become a tubie, we need to stretch our stomach by filling it to capacity repeatedly over a long period of time. Instead, the grossly misinformed medical community wants us to feed 4 or more times a day using tiny meals for our now very tiny stomach, or even worse, they want to put a tubie on a pump which in my opinion only further exacerbates the problem. 2. Heart burn/reflux-During the time that I was stretching my stomach after getting my G-tube, I frequently suffered reflux but basically ignored it and tolerated it as I refuse to take antacids as they are actually far more dangerous than the problem they are supposed to eliminate. After my stomach expanded to the needed capacity, the reflux amazingly diminished to the point that I seldom have it anymore. Right now as I type this, I am gravity feeding my breakfast blend which contains one packet of instant oatmeal prepped with boiling water, a palmful of each of the following: raisins, almonds, walnuts, baby spinach leaves, black table grapes, blueberries, and strawberries. I also add a small banana or half of a large banana. I blended all this for only one minute in my 1500 watt Nutri Ninja blender and it flows perfectly thru my 24Fr. dangling type G-tube. 3. I never blend my meals more than one minute because another theory: I want my stomach to keep of functioning as it was designed to work. I believe that the stomach needs to have the job of preparing my food to enter my intestine. If I totally liquify my blends to the point they have no particles, that will cause my stomach to become UNEMPLOYED, and I never want to have to use a J-tube or get to the point where I have to rely on TPN to remain alive. The above are my theories as I am very much a common sense guy who tries to look at over-all situations, and not just a single point in a process. I have made numerous helpful tube feeding gadgets to make my life as a tubie as tolerable as possible, and I freely share photos of them with anyone. Sanford Flach flachusnret@comcast.net
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