First of all, thank you.  So many of you have spread the word about the Blue Note Fund, and made generous donations, that I am truly touched by your display of compassion and caring.  I hope that we’ve been able to help someone during a very difficult time.

On to something a bit lighter.  I think I’ve made it clear that food is really important to me.  After feeling so discouraged a few days ago about the prospects for summer eating, I’ve just thought of something that gives me hope.

Strawberry juice.

Let me back up a little bit.  The primary reason that I will have to eliminate certain foods from my diet after surgery, especially if I have an ileostomy, is that I’ll need to maintain a “low-residue,” low-fiber diet for a while.  Essentially, this means eliminating lots of the foods that are really good for you, like fruits, vegetables, whole grains and nuts.  The reason for this restriction is that such a diet reduces the volume of, er, output from the digestive tract – in short, it gives your colon a break.  This makes it easier for everything to heal post-operatively and during chemo.  It’s not a great long term dietary plan, and it’s also quite grim because it sounds so bland.

But there is hope.  In an effort to start figuring out what might be palatable in a couple of weeks, and to get myself in the best possible shape for surgery, I’ve been stocking up on vegetables and making some green juices.  I won’t be able to eat superfoods like kale and broccoli for a while after surgery, but I can throw just about anything in the blender, puree it, and extract the juice.  I’ll be able to have all the vitamins and most of the nutritional benefit of fresh vegetables, even if I do have to lose all the good fiber.  I made this today:

Quite green, isn’t it?  I know what some of you are thinking, but it was really pretty good.  Add a green apple, some ginger and some mint to this stuff and you get a concoction that tastes like an odd apple juice.  This particular blend included cucumber, spinach, celery and broccoli stems (really).  When I looked at the ingredients I’d piled up, I was pessimistic, but I can really only taste the apple, ginger and a bit of the cucumber.

This culinary experiment made me realize that, even though I’ll probably have to forgo eating strawberries in the field (and really, is there anything as good as a berry that’s bright red and warm from the sun?), I can make myself some strawberry juice, and that will be a reasonable consolation.  I may even be able to get some strawberry popsicles out of the deal.

I can live with that.