Chicken Soup for the cancer patient

AnotherSurvivor
AnotherSurvivor Member Posts: 384 Member
edited January 2017 in Head and Neck Cancer #1

This is not about motivation, this is about actual chicken soup.  I was in considerable distress from no calories and having problems swallowing anything thicker than water.  One of the nurses suggested boiling a complete chicken, and then not separating the fat from the broth. That turns out to be easier to swallow than water, and I was getting down 400 calories a day at about 40 calories per cup.  On a wild try, my wife mixed in a beaten egg, making eggdrop soup (do NOT add the usual corn starch, it only thickens).  That turns out to actually make the soup easier to swallow, and you get 65 calories per cup.  We next added in a small bit of Nestle Benecalorie, and had 100 calorie per cup soup.  Still easy to swallow.  That was four days ago, and we have gone from 500 calories max days to within striking range of 2,000.  The key is the still fatted chicken broth.

Comments

  • CivilMatt
    CivilMatt Member Posts: 4,724 Member
    #2
    Yum

    AS,

    That is great!  Whatever works is the key to nutrition and it sounds pretty darn good.

    For me, it was tomatoes, cucumbers and lots of olive oil.  I don’t know why, but I enjoyed it immensely.

    I drank smoothies for 7 months with numerous tasting forays before my taste buds woke up (almost) completely.  Or at least to a new normal.

    Keep on cooking chicken (it hits the spot).

    Taste on.

    Matt

  • danc1962
    danc1962 Member Posts: 11
    #3
    Hey, I'm going to try this.

    Hey, I'm going to try this. It sounds delicious. I am recovering well so I will add some noodles too. Thanks for the good tip. By the way, not sure where you are in treatments or recovery, KFC dark meat is like the best thing I have eaten since my taste buds started coming back. Good luck, fight hard, God bless!

  • AnotherSurvivor
    AnotherSurvivor Member Posts: 384 Member
    #4
    danc1962 said:

    Hey, I'm going to try this.

    Hey, I'm going to try this. It sounds delicious. I am recovering well so I will add some noodles too. Thanks for the good tip. By the way, not sure where you are in treatments or recovery, KFC dark meat is like the best thing I have eaten since my taste buds started coming back. Good luck, fight hard, God bless!

    Just logged 14 days past last

    Just logged 14 days past last radiation hit.  Today, for a while, suddenly everything tasted like pickles.  That went away and now everything tastes like nothing again.  I have tried a few solid items, but end up going back to chicken soup and nutrition shakes.  good news tho, is on that the weight loss stopped and I gained a little.  I'm feeling pleased to be doing 1,600 - 1,800 calories a day, and since the world is looking better, I expect gradual improvements.  Cancer was a comparatively easy fight; I was doing  great until I developed some pulmonary embolisms.  By the time I got out of the hospital everything had gone downhill.  weight loss 30#, blood chemistry was trashed, wheelchaired for nearly two weeks.  Continued with rad while in the hospital.  Gaining weight, and getting good lab results now.  "Normalcy" seems possible, I'm just not sure what it will look like.

  • blueskiestx
    blueskiestx Member Posts: 6
    #5
    Thank you for sharing.  This

    Thank you for sharing.  This is the kind of info I'm looking for as my husband doesn't have an appetite for anything.  

    Take care and good luck!

  • tommyodavey
    tommyodavey Member Posts: 728 Member
    #6
    Hard to Swallow

    In the beginning weeks after surgery on my tongue to remove a tumor, nothing went down my throat except a little water and that hurt like heck.  After two weeks I was able to get down chicken noodle soup with the extra noodles to finally stop the hunger pains.  Added some rice too to make it more filling.  In the morning I would scramble an egg and cook it with lots of butter and only enough to kill germs.  It went down nice and slippery w/o having to swallow more than a few times.  The pain was terrible but subsided a little every week.  Six weeks later I was able to eat a very soft meal which was a big deal for me.  The weight loss stopped then and things started to get better. 

    Canned pears and peaches work well to get some fruit.  Just make sure it's in syrup, not natural juices.  You need all the calories you can get.

    Sounds like you have a great plan and will continue to do better.  Stay positive and know that one day you'll be almost back to normal.  Not completely, but good enough.

    Tom

  • donfoo
    donfoo Member Posts: 1,773 Member
    #7
    Super

    Getting up to 500 calories in a cup of supercharged chicken soup is unbelievable. Of all the concoctions printed here, this one is the new winner for easy to prepare and deliver the biggest calories per cup.

    Sounds like you are on the way up now in recovery. Hang in there.

  • mrspaul
    mrspaul Member Posts: 24
    #8
    Thank you!  - my husband has

    Thank you!  - my husband has just finished his fifth week of radiation - three more to go - he has lost about 40 pounds since the beginning of his cancer - and swallowing anything is very hard....I have a chicken in the freezer - going to defrost and make this soup.  

     

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