A License To Eat

Think of it this way. I’ve been given a license to eat anything, any quantity, any time and not gain weight! And they say cancer has no upside.

Before cancer I weighed close to 200 pounds. This morning I was 164. The last time my weight was in this ballpark I was worried about the SATs.

When people look at me they’re astounded I had cancer. I’m slim and trim with good color. By my own admission I am the least cancery cancer patient ever!

The problem is last week I weighed 168. We went to Vegas where I ate like a human. It wasn’t enough. I need to be grazing all my waking hours to maintain my weight.

I know why. First, the distance between my mouth and tush was surgically shortened by the Whipple surgery. Food spends less time in me and I receive less nutritional benefit.

Second, I am the proverbial greased goose. ‘Nuff said.

Think of it this way. I’ve been given a license to eat anything, any quantity, any time and not gain weight! And they say cancer has no upside.

All this can be fixed pretty easily with medications like Creon, which I’m about to try. However, there’s something to be said about staying thin.

See, guys worry too.

3 thoughts on “A License To Eat”

  1. Dear Geoff,

    Thank you so much for talking to our students. They were very interested and quiet listening to every word that you said. The students who showed up were interested no one forced them to be there.

    I think if we had a camera so you could have seen them, it might have helped with the 3 second delay.

    It was hard to estimate how many people there were. They broke up the ballroom and I did not know the capacity of that room just every seat was filled. Someone else thought that there were 40-50 people, which might have been more accurate. We were competing with lunch, competitions and other workshops.

    The students were interested. We did not do the intro before you started, because people kept coming in, but we wanted to get started when you came showed up in order to give you the time, so we gave your bio afterwards. I believe that this can work. Some modifications like the camera and maybe if you wore a headset so that you could hear, or maybe you heard from your phone. Were you on speaker phone. Also, this was the first time we used this hotel. I thought that there would be speakers or a microphone that we could have put near the computer. By the time I realized that it was too late to get it. The students were very interested in the photos of you getting radiation. I think a few more photos/videos like the ones that I have seen you post on your blog would be very interesting to them. Also, if we had their teachers with them. Unfortunately, we had to draft most of their teachers to help run some of the 27 competitions that we were running that day. So, next time, I would make sure that their teacher(s) were in the room. Teenagers sometimes get shy and need some prodding to get them to talk and ask questions. I believe this is doable. I think you have a very unique perspective–being a scientist and a patient. I think a quick view of how you do the weather from your garage would be of interest to them as well. What do you think?

    On behalf of CT HOSA: Future Health Professionals, we thank you so very much for your presentation. We really appreciated you sharing the information and personal journey.

    Sue Troupe–CT HOSA State Co-Advisor

  2. Geoff, I’ve been on creon for 2 years. No problem it will help your digestive process. Keep the faith you’ll get through this. Oh and by the way, you’ll put the weight back on!

  3. Glad to hear you’re doing well Geoff! I am not fortunate enough to be able to have the surgery. I’ve been receiving chemo for 3 years now but they say I’m doing great! The tumor doesn’t seem to be shrinking but I just had a good report that my tumor markers are down to 56! On the Creon, they tried that on me when this all started but it was too much for me. They have a lower dose enzyme that I have been taking and works very well. It’s called Pancrelipase (or Zenpep) depending on the brand. I had lost 40 # when this all started and have since put all the weight back on, thanks to the enzymes! I also drink EnteraGam in the morning before eating. It helps to slow the digestion and also has helped me very much! Talk to your Doc about it! My gastroenterologist put me on the 2 things and my oncologist didn’t think it would help but was quite surprised to find out that it did! Hope this info helps you and again, I’m glad you’re doing well!

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