On Normality and Food

Leo has been feeling a lot better these last couple of days. Many of the side effects have been reduced to a murmur, leaving him "almost normal." Normal enough to plague me with bad jokes and classic Leo-like behaviors (imagine these for yourself, but keywords are: watches, procrastination, and Leo you'd better WRITE YOUR PAPERS). Normal enough for us to bicker like an old married couple. Or maybe the Odd Couple, but, weirdly, we take turns being Oscar and Felix at exactly the same time and argue about that. 

Over the past few weeks Leo and I have been lucky enough to receive some incredibly generous offers and gifts of home-cooked food, often involving magical door-to-door service (see photo). We love the food! Thank you so much.

Something that we've recently learned is that there are several (normally healthy) foods that Leo can't eat now that he's started chemo. So, though this sounds awfully presumptuous, I thought I should give a heads up to avoid anyone going to the trouble of preparing food that Leo can't actually eat. Below are things that he should avoid.

Too Acidic (will hurt the mouth):

Tomatoes, raw or cooked

Citrus fruits or juices

Vinegar or vinegary foods

Coffee

Alcohol

Other Mouth Irritants: 

Spicy foods

Hard, dry, or coarse foods

Very hot/cold foods

Very sugary foods

Bacteria Carriers (due to a lowered immune system):

Raw milk cheeses

Raw fruits and vegetables that haven't been washed/peeled

Raw fish or meat

When the doctor told us about all the foods to avoid, Leo's only question was, "So I shouldn't eat steak tartare?" I really don't think that was a joke.