TLDR: Cancer makes me hungry, nom nom nom.

My favorite Street Fighter II character is Dhalsim. He’s the guy from India with the long, extendable arms. And no, that is not a veiled reference to P. or anything. I was thinking about how to introduce that tomorrow will be my second round of chemo and the sound that popped into my head was, “Round 2… Fight!” I thought that was from Street Fighter, but when I looked it up on the internet, it turns out it’s actually from Mortal Kombat. In the world of kids growing up in the ’90s, I think there are Street Fighter partisans and Mortal Kombat partisans. I belong to the former,but I suppose Mortal Kombat left an indelible mark on me as well.

I can’t believe it’s time for Round 2! The last 2 weeks have passed by very very quickly, which is exciting, as I hope that this means that treatment will feel like a quick process overall. Many friends have asked me how I’m feeling. Well, I’m thrilled to report that I feel great!

I think the last fortnight (now, how often does one get to use that as an exact measurement!) has passed by quickly precisely because I feel really good. The side effects, thus far, have been mild. I was told by the nurses and doctors that the severity of side effects tends to be different for each person and that the most common side effects of my current chemotherapy regimen include fatigue, nausea, mouth sores (because the chemo targets rapidly dividing cells and that includes the cells in the mouth) and hair loss.

So far, fatigue has probably been the most obvious side effect. In the immediate few days after my first chemotherapy infusion (that’s the word for it) I would get easily tired during the day. I spent most of those days watching television, reading magazines, and napping. I was able to sleep, although it was usually interrupted several times in the night. I did feel well enough, though, to take walks by Wollaston Beach and also spent a nice Sunday afternoon with a big group of friends noshing on pizza and wings with football in the background. Actually, aside from the chemo, maybe the most out of the ordinary thing that happened in the last 2 weeks is that I watched football (keeping in mind that I might be using “watched” rather loosely). Then, after the first 4 days of laying low, by the Monday after chemo, I felt on the up and up again, and over the week was able to go to school for an entire day, join a dinner and brunch party one weekend, and do a 2 mile run. But, because my doctors also did prescribe me television, I made sure to comply with instructions and continued plowing through Lost and a bunch of ballet videos on youtube.

Since I mentioned pizza and wings above, I should also note that my appetite has been simply voracious! Cancer makes me really really hungry! Since I’m living at home, my mother has been keeping a tight watch on my diet, especially as she wants me to adhere to Chinese medicine principles that believe when a body is in distress and fighting disease one should not eat fried, oily, or overly roasted/charred foods.  In addition to that, my daily menu also includes ample fruits and vegetables that have made the anti-cancer roster among Chinese folks, which include:

• Asparagus
• Prickly pear
• Apples
• Purple yams
• Purple cabbage
• Pomegranate

And of course, no proper Cantonese diet would be complete without leaves, leaves and more leaves (e.g. choy sum, bok choy, Chinese broccoli) and the ubiquitous soup (e.g. chicken, red dates, shiitake mushroom, “monkey head” mushroom & carrot; chicken, sea cucumber, shiitake mushroom, wai san & red dates). P is also experimenting with salads, including a quinoa salad that could compete with any up and coming “fast casual” chain’s offerings.

So, I call this my intox-detox diet, as every 2 weeks, I get an infusion of necessary poisons into my system and then I spend the rest of the time eating whole grains, purple things (rich in anthocyanins), and green leaves. Then, for good measure, I sneak orange things in when I’m at school.

Oh, and this is what I look like now, with a big thank you to Helen* whose handiwork will help make it less shocking for me when I inevitably lose my hair.

*This girl knows how to cut hair, and you’ll split your sides laughing and having a good time in her chair. If you’re in the Boston area, I’ll give you a referral!