Simon's Radiotherapy Diet

Simon starts seven weeks of radiotherapy today. As part of his preparation he has to be able to retain 350 ml of urine in his bladder while the machine delivers the dose over 15 minutes. This has meant he has been diligently recording his intake and output times and quantities so he can establish a pattern and arrive at hospital in just the right state. It's much harder than it sounds as it's over an hour from home to the hospital.

 

Banned.

He is also not allowed to have intestinal gas. We've been given a diet sheet, which is a list of foods to avoid and a list of foods that are encouraged. It has meant a quite radical change in our diet and a lot of thinking on my part.

 

Banned.

Number one on the banned list is anything in the onion family, so I've made batches of chicken and vegetable stock with celery, parsley and carrots, no leeks, no onions. So far he has enjoyed my special chicken noodle soup, and there is vegetable, and tomato to come.

 

Banned.

Number two on the banned list is green vegetables, mostly anything Brassicae, but also chard and spinach, green beans and peas. Zucchini seems to be fine, and soft lettuce such as oak leaf is positively encouraged. Green asparagus is allowed too, but a) he doesn't like it, and b) it is out of season. 

 

Banned.

The only truly safe vegetables that he can eat and likes are carrots and potatoes, so long as they are peeled and cooked. I am going to be so sick of them by November, and sick of peeling them. 

 

Banned.

Other banned veggies are peppers, most root vegetables (cooked carrots and beetroot are the exceptions), cucumber and white asparagus. I'm taking the view that as tomatoes and aubergines are not mentioned they must be okay.

 

Okay.

Naturally the other big group of banned foods are pulses (leguminous veggies such as dried beans, chickpeas and lentils). This is a food group that we would normally eat several times a week!

 

Okay.

He can eat hard cheeses but needs to avoid soft cheeses and blue cheeses. Yoghurt is okay, and desserts such as rice pudding. I've been doing him stewed fruit to have with yoghurt, and he can eat all sorts of plain cakes and biscuits. Toasted white ham and cheese sandwiches are okay and now a mainstay. He's encouraged to eat honey, but he doesn't like it.

 

Okay.

The herbs and spices he can have are limited and I've been doing my best to liven some bland dishes up. He can have cumin, dill, fennel, cardamon, basil and turmeric. Saturday night I did a sort of pretend white chilli, with turkey, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes and just about all of the allowed herbs and spices.

 

Banned.

Meat is restricted to chicken, turkey and white fish. I've no doubt he could have rabbit too, but he doesn't like it. Luckily we have a good new fishmonger at SuperU in la Roche Posay so I can get good fish easily.

 

Banned.

Considering that we are a household that easily reaches the recommended 30 plant species per week in our normal diet, and usually manages double that, this is going to be challenging. I've been scouring the Monash University FODMAP recipes for inspiration, but even they are not always suitable. They were designed to help people with IBS and a couple of other bowel problems though, so they are a good starting point.

 

Okay.

Further reading: the Monash University FODMAP website https://www.monashfodmap.com/about-fodmap-and-ibs/

Random Blogging

We've been a bit all over the place this week. Susan has had work, and I've had medical stuff to attend to to. There's also been lunch with friends, and a little bit of house renovation.

The whole of my week has centered around drinking litres of water every day, and measuring the "results". My radiotherapy starts next week, and for each session I need to have "a full bladder and an empty bowel". I also need to be gas free, which means that for the next 7 weeks I will be on a very plain diet. Susan has made a lot of meals which are as delicious as you can get without the use of onions, garlic, spices, beans, red meat, and most vegetables. Or fresh fruit, most dairy, and "exciting" drinks such as tea, coffee, and soft drinks.

No photos, because - you know 🥴

However...

There are photos of our front yard cleanup. First we had Rafael, our gardener, weed and remove the rubbish. There are no photos of the courtyard before that because, quite frankly, it had become embarrassing.

We then had a stonemason fix the surrounds of what should, one day, be our front door. The bricks had eroded away, leaving the back of the insulation exposed. That brickwork was corrected, then the whole lot rendered.

Now we have to start on planting, remembering that during summer the courtyard is Saharan, and during winter it can get very frosty. In order to overcome the dry we have plans to install a 300 litre water butt, but there's nothing we can really do to ameliorate the 50° heat.

Potter Wasps on the Canadian Fleabane

The other day I got out of the car and noticed that there was half a dozen potter wasps going crazy for the Canadian Fleabane Conyza canadensis (Fr. la Vergerette du Canada) in the front courtyard. It doesn't have very eyecatching flowers and it can definitely be called a weed here, but it must be packed with nectar that these distinctive wasps were feasting on.

Potter wasps Eumenes sp (Fr. les guêpes potières) are notoriously difficult to identify to species level, but luckily the Spanish social wasp specialist Leopoldo Castro was able to look at my photos in Facebook and offer his opinion. He says my photos are almost certainly of E. coronatus. We think there was a second species present too, because some of my photos show an individual with an almost entirely yellow posterior half of the abdomen. The photos were all taken with my phone, so most of them are quite blurry.

Potter wasps make charming little mud vases attached to twigs on bushes, which they lay an egg in and stock with a paralysed caterpillar which will become food for the larva once it hatches.

Wall Paintings in Poitiers Cathedral

 In 2012 a study was done prior to necessary restoration work after water damaged some of the vaulting.  It revealed a superb assembly of medieval paintings under the imitation stone render done in 1783 in the neoclassical style. The restoration of the south transept paintings began in 2015 and took 10 months to complete. This radiant Gothic art was probably executed in the time of Bishop Gauthier de Bruges just before 1300. A different scene is depicted in each quarter. In the north it is an offering of crowns, in the south the coronation of the Virgin, in the east the Last Judgement, and in the west the bosom of Abraham.

Another wall painting in the nave represents Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and dates from the end of the 17th century.

Packed For a Picnic

Fifteen August, Assomption, fell on a Friday this year so it was a long weekend throughout France. We enjoyed the company of Simon's brother, his wife and their friend. One of the things we did was join the annual classic car meet at Lésigny. This involves meeting at the river for breakfast, then driving a 40 km circuit through rural countryside and villages, along with hundreds of other classic cars following one after another. Once back at the riverside park it was time for a picnic, then a swim.

This is Claudette's boot packed with all the essentials for a picnic and swimming.

For the picnic we served melon and dry cured ham, followed by onion and goats cheese quiche (made by Simon), lettuce, tomatoes, homemade basil vinaigrette, and homemade pickled onions. That was followed by a cheese platter, then homemade mirabelle clafoutis. The drinks served were rose, sparkling water, ginger beer, and champagne.

Every House Has a Well

I came home from shopping the other day and as I walked round to go into the house our Irish neighbour John beckoned me over and said 'Come and look at what I've found!'

He'd been doing some gardening and discovered that behind the cast iron pump that sits decoratively in the front flower bed under a linden tree, there was evidence of a what he strongly suspected was a well cover. A bit of crowbarring later and he was proved right.

Every house in our street, which is named after a well, has its own. Nowadays I don't think any of them are in use, even to water gardens. Our own well is at the back of the house, and like John, we didn't discover it immediately. We'd owned the house for a year when one day we had an architect poking about and he lifted the manhole cover to reveal our well.

Our well is 18 metres deep, John's is 15 metres. Both have water at the bottom. We've never measured ours, but John reckons he's got nearly a metre in depth. In both cases the stone walls of the wells seem in good condition.