Home - Day 5 - Turkey Sandwiches

When I was 17 I had Hodgkins disease and part of the treatment was chemotherapy ("chemo"). Chemo isn't so fun and one of the big side effects is some pretty intense vomiting. When my mom would bring me home from the hospital she'd put me down to bed so that I could try to rest. The first couple of hours were rough, but then things would settle down and I'd actually get hungry. My first food after chemo was melba toast and lemon tea. Sounds pretty simple I know but after a day of retching my guts so hard that I was breaking blood vessels in my head, the fact that I was able to eat something was miraculous and melba toast and lemon tea became a comfort that indicated things were getting better.

Fortunately the recovery from heart surgery does not include anything like chemo and there's no nausea or retching. But similar to my chemo time, I found something that brings comfort to my entire soul as soon as I take a bite.

My angiogram procedure was a full day procedure. I was scheduled first thing in the morning, but the recovery went into late afternoon. During that recovery the nurses begin with giving you water, then juice, then fruit and then a full blown sandwich. The sandwich that was given to me was a turkey sandwich. Nothing special: very fresh whole wheat bread, real sliced roasted turkey and probably some margarine. Comfort is all I can say when I took a bite of that sandwich. It couldn't be more simple, but if that wasn't the best feeling I had all day.

Since I got home my mom has been making me turkey sandwiches with fresh whole wheat bread, real sliced roasted turkey, a little lettuce, a little relish and a little margarine. Every day I sink my teeth into those sandwiches either for lunch or a snack in the afternoon or both and the feeling of comfort is overwhelming.

We added another couple of minutes to my walks today and things are going well. I actually had a couple of good sleep periods last night too. And of course we had turkey sandwiches.