While in the hospital the week before last, my oncologist told me he wanted me to drink a liter of water a day. Yeah, like I can do that, right? Unless I'm really thirsty, water tends to upset my stomach so although I do drink it, I can't drink as much of it as the experts say we should.
So after having a fairly good last week, I came home Friday after work and grew increasingly tired. By Saturday morning, it was all I could do to drag myself around the house. I naturally still blamed this cold that's hung on since February 8, and continued to take my medicine but still felt increasingly lethargic.
My first thought was that I needed to build up my strength through proper nutrition which I'm usually pretty good at anyway. I'm supposed to be on a high-protein diet to increase my red blood cells, so I thought perhaps I needed to up the protein. For breakfast I had cereal with a sprinkling of nuts, V8, coffee, toast with peanut butter, and my collection of vitamins which I've never stopped taking! Lunch was a spinach omelet and half of a baked sweet potato. For a snack I had pears and cheddar cheese. I started feeling a bit better but not totally.
That's when I decided to go back and read through the stack of reading materials I received from the doctor. There in black and white it said to drink 2-3 quarts of water withing 24-hour.
That's 2 cups to a pint, 2 pints to a quart = 8-12 cups of water per day.
Fortunately I have a small pitcher that holds just about one quart so the math wasn't too challenge for my poor little grey cells--drink 2-3 pitchers of water and I'll be on the mend.
I took a 2-1/2 hour nap in the afternoon and noticed I felt pretty good when I woke up. I finally finished the third pitcher of water before going to bed. It's amazing how much better I feel today.
Note to self, idiot--keep the water coming!
