Fresh Coconut

One man's meat is another man's poison.

I still don't get it.  Fresh coconuts were supposed to help cool down the effects of chemotherapy.  That's what everyone said.  It didn't work for me and everyone's been trying to explain it ever since.

On the first day after treatment, I took one fresh coconut.  There weren't any waterfall sensation but hey, if it's swinging things down a little for my innards, I'm not complaining. I don't need any notification.  Then again, I was on steroids and probably feeling as high as the Twin Tower. Four days after the treatment, when the steroids wore off, I could feel the decline.  My finger tips started to hurt. I spent the next two days with body and muscle aches, ribcage aches, and I swear my recent wound started hurting again. I wasn't terribly fond of Panadol but I took one to ease the pain.

Once again, my tongue acquired that old familiar metallic taste. My throat was tightening up so more fresh coconuts were recommended.  What ensued was diarrhoea.

There's something to be said about fresh coconuts. Apparently, they are not to be taken after 4 pm. Something about the dying day having a diabolical effect on the coconuts. They acquire a fatal cooling grip on your bodily yin yang thingy and throw your system out of sync.

In my case, I do not have enough fire in the pit of my stomach.  Hence the diarrhoea. Don't get me wrong. There's fire in my throat but they're kinda different in a topsy-turvy-holy-chapati-only-God-knows kind of way.

So I had diarrhoea for five days after the body aches.  Isn't that fun? Yesterday, seeing that the diarrhoea had dissipated, I drank about 100 ml 100+, the isotonic drink at room temperature.  The diarrhoea returned. Looks like it's going to be my current best friend for a while.

Have I mentioned mouth ulcers?  They're back too, in the multitude. I discovered Bonjela.  Also, the flat of my foot started to hurt for the past two days so I kept myself in bed most of the time.

Taxotere is one mean machine, I can tell you that!