Thanksgiving Day 3

Today I am thankful for the plethora of food and for the ability to eat it and keep it down (not to mention be able to pass it on through)! One does not realize how something as simple as eating can be taken from you.

I am thankful that during my chemo this time I was able to take drugs that prevented the nausea from overwhelming me. I remember during one hospitalization for the rectal cancer that the drugs did not prevent me from throwing up. At one point, the pastor's wife was visiting and I started vomiting queasy green slime straight from my toes. I wretched over and over, gagging in between, and she patiently held my hair out of my face and wiped my forehead with a cool cloth. Nothing like that occurred with this round, thank God.

I am grateful that I have the ability to buy all sorts and flavors of good food from Wegmans, and that there is one close to my house. I have been blessed to taste Asian pears (so juicy and crisp), South American bananas, every imaginable type of squash and melon - in season and out! Every imaginable kind of bread is available without my having to grind the grains, keep the yeast fresh, knead the dough, wait for it to rise, gather firewood, bank the coals - all the things so many people have to do just to eat a morsel of bread.

I am thankful that people with gardens are generous in sharing their fresh lettuce, tangy tomatoes, delectable green peppers, tender green beans. I love fresh vegetables even though I have a hard time digesting them. Tiny amounts are tolerable, and tease the tastebuds - which I am so grateful have come back to normal! It was trying when everything tasted like plastic. Sugar was not sweet, salt was not savory, tinny seemed to be the flavor du jour.

I am fortunate that my sense of smell was not greatly affected by the treatments either. My boys think I can sniff out anything amiss a mile away. Surely a good sense of smell enhances your appetite. Who doesn't appreciate the smell of fresh baked bread or onions frying or the delicate fragrances of spices in a delicious stew?

With Thanksgiving just days away, I am ever so grateful to be beyond cancer treatments and able to both participate in feasting and still remember what its like when you can't eat. Here's a happy gratefulness for food and the enjoyment of partaking.