Welcome back, all! This week I thought it might be nice to take a little break from all the cancer-related posts and return to what I know and love – food! I have been so blessed with maintaining a healthy appetite through all of my treatment that I wanted to take advantage of it and try out another historic recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks, The Historic Kentucky Kitchen by Deirdre Scaggs and Andrew McGraw. I first visited this delicious tome about a year ago, and I have been cooking from it with some regularity since then. I think it’s great that Scaggs and McGraw have taken a collection of authentic Kentucky recipes from history and set them up for the modern cook.
There is a strong cultural significance attached to a woman’s hair. Throughout history, hair has been an element of displaying a woman’s social position, her religion, as well as her personal expression. The style, the length and the color all can play an important role in how a woman both sees herself and how she presents herself to the world. This is why one of the core concerns for women undergoing cancer treatment, specifically chemotherapy, is hair loss. As this post goes up, I am beginning to lose mine (slowly), and I wanted to talk about a few thoughts I have about hair and how I’m dealing with the imminent loss of it.
My hair “before”.
Probably the first question I get from people when they find out that I’m in treatment for cancer is, “Oh wow, have you been sick yet?” And I am thankful to be able to answer that no, the nausea hasn’t been a huge issue for me – yet. As this post goes up, I’m undergoing my second chemo treatment, and I would imagine that as the drugs begin to build up and concentrate in my body that nausea will become more prominent. And I’m sure that there are lots of others out there going through the same thing, so this week I wanted to talk about a few tips that may help to handle any nausea that may come your way, both sourced from what I have read and been told, as well as what I know from personal experience. As per the usual, please remember that I’m not a medical professional or a dietitian, and if you do have any questions concerning your diet during chemotherapy, please consult one of those lovely people.
While I’m not entirely sure how this post will go down with many of you, I do feel like it’s a topic that deserves to be covered, and it’s one that’s of some importance to me. For those of us out there are are beauty lovers (aka beauty junkies, makeup fiends, what have you), a cancer diagnosis can change your outlook on not only how you see yourself, but how you feel the rest of the world sees you as well. Now let me go ahead and get the obvious items out of the way: I’m not saying that you have to wear makeup to feel – or be – attractive. I’m not saying that if you went full glam everyday before your diagnosis that you should either stick with it during your treatment, or give it up entirely. What I’m going to talk about this week is how I’m handling my particular situation, and hopefully it can provide a bit of insight and/or be helpful to some of you out there. 
I am a couple of weeks into my diagnosis now, and as you are reading this, I have begun my chemotherapy treatments. To say that I hadn’t pictured myself doing this a year ago (or ever) would be the gross understatement of the year. But my official “campaign slogan” is #worktheproblem, and I have every intention of doing that. Not giving into the drama, just focusing all of myself on getting past this. Needless to say this situation has basically upended every part of my life, especially now that chemotherapy is involved. The biggest change is physical, and in turn that means that one of the foundations of my daily life – my diet – will be changing also. Unfortunately I’m having to play it somewhat by ear, but I at least have a small idea of how my personal “menu” is going to be changing and what I need to do to make these next several months a little easier on my body.