Eddie’s status: Today Eddie ate a tangerine.
I’ll tell you why this is a big deal.
For the past month and half, Eddie has been plagued by nausea and a loss of appetite. It’s gotten to the point where he hasn’t able to tolerate anything more than periodic sips of apple juice and water. Even most of his meds, normally taken by mouth, had to be switched over to IV because he just couldn’t keep anything down.
The doctors suspect that Eddie’s gut issues are due to some GI bleeding and/or a side effect of all the heavy meds that Eddie has been on. Despite their best efforts, they could not figure out the exact cause of Eddie’s nausea or his severe loss of appetite. To be honest, we all kind of resigned ourselves to thinking that Eddie wouldn’t be back on solid foods until after his bone marrow transplant.
But, then, a surprising thing happened today.
I was eating some sliced apples this morning, and out of habit, I said to Eddie, “Mmm. These are really good. You want some?,” knowing that he would say no. To my surprise, he said, yes, he wanted to try some.
Unfortunately, Eddie couldn’t have any apple slices because we quickly recalled that he was under NPO (”nothing by mouth”) status in preparation for a possible bronchoscopy. However, later in the day, when they pulled the NPO order, Eddie helped himself to a little snack: a bite of a Korean snack cake and a whole tangerine!
Eddie was like, hmm, this food tastes pretty good. Doesn’t make me want to gag.
For dinner, he had a small portion of rice, meatballs, and kimchi. Can’t keep a Korean from his kimchi!
Eddie’s still in the hospital being treated for his pneumonia, but the fact that he’s able to eat, even if it’s just a few bites here and there, has sure given us all an extra boost in morale.
Who would have thought that one of the positives of coming down with pneumonia is that Eddie’s gut issues have been derailed? (That’s probably not true, but the timing sure makes it seem that way).
Nausea is something that Eddie will likely have to grapple with again because of the myriad of drugs he’s on and his eventual chemotherapy, but this reprieve from the nausea, however long it may last, is much appreciated and will not be taken for granted.
In the mean time, let us hope that Eddie gets a break and can enjoy some birthday cake tomorrow!
Eddie vs Nausea –
Eddie FTW!
