If there is one bit of information people don’t know about cancer is that it causes an insatiable appetite for sweets. Cancer cells need sugar to grow. A cancer center staff member told my wife this as a precaution against giving in to her cravings. This was going to be a big problem for my wife who considered a nutritional breakfast consisted of a handful of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and a can of full-octane Coca Cola.
The staff member went on to say that after some patients died, families found stashes of chocolate and other goodies stuffed with high fructose corn syrup. Again my wife was guilty of hiding massive quantities of candies at both home and office. This, of course, did not fool our daughter who had a homing device which zeroed in on one or more candy caches which, somehow, gathered together on their own accord for my wife’s convenience.
However, as the chemotherapy progressed, a curious situation developed. My wife lost her taste for sweets. First to go was chocolate, which was a shame because our daughter, now a grown lady with a baby girl of her own, sent my wife for Mother’s Day all kinds of candy. My wife took one nibble of a bar of white chocolate and said the taste made her want to throw up. She hasn’t had a soda in weeks, drinking instead Gatorade and water with the occasional cup of hot green tea.
I am waiting a respectful period of time before offering to eat all of that awful candy so she doesn’t have to look at it anymore.