Its all in the details

So the doctor wants me to right down every time I eat or drink something and every time I have abdominal pains and what I am doing. She wants me to do this for two weeks. I started Friday and have been relatively good about writing stuff down. Sometimes I forget but I don't make it up. I am just going to tell her, I tried but couldn't write everything down. I think I have become good about ignoring the pains and have been trying to pay attention more to them but sometimes I just revert to my ignore mode.

I think I will have a major epistle by the end of two weeks. I am already up to four full pages (typed in a table on my computer). I am not sure she knew what she was getting into. (7:40 am, dull ache right side while sitting at computer - I am just sitting here and it starts.) Unfortunately I will also get an evaluation on my eating habits. I do eat fruit for breakfast and then some toast. I try to be healthy at lunch and dinner always starts with a salad. However I did have a bag of gum drops that I didn't finish until Saturday and last night we broke into the last bag of dark chocolate M&Ms. I will avoid bacon and ice cream for the duration as well. If my eating habits are going to be put under the microscope, I might as well try to be good. But Sunday night we went out for pizza, so guess what I had for breakfast yesterday - cold pizza. It was quite yummy but probably not what the doctor thinks I should eat.

Now here's a question: if I am supposed to write down everything I eat and drink, I write down just when I start eating or drinking. For example, I get a glass of water at 5pm and it takes me an hour to drink it so I just right down 5pm. If I get a cup of coffee at 7am, I write down 7am, but it might take me two hours to get around to drinking all of it (yes, cold coffee, that's another story). So, therefore, I write down when a pain starts and not how long it lasts. That would be way too complicated I think. More than my tiny chemo brain can handle. Its bad enough I walk around with notes stuck in my pockets all the time now. I have my handy little note pad that Lahey Clinic sent me to use to write everything down that I carry around with me...

Yesterday I did get out for my pizza recovery walk and then went to work. Today I am going to go for a walk and work at home. Then I have a job interview in Boston for a very interesting job. Communications work for a financial services company, part time and I could work from home most of the time. I am very excited. But I do need to iron some clothes to wear... I hate ironing but job interviews and wrinkles don't exactly go together.