Chocolate And Coffee To The Rescue

It may seem odd to some, but there are better cures for many ailments other than drugs.
I’ve been having weekly injections of “6MP” as part of the cancer treatment.

In fairness, many of the patients in the chemo Infusion Center have to deal with much worse than I do. Some patients have to sit in a chair, IV in arm, for an hour, while some are confined for many hours. I seem to recall one person having to do a once-per-month routine that involves 8 hours sitting in the chair, with an IV, not able to do anything more-so from the physical fatigue of the hard drugs.

In my case, my injection is literally that - no IVs. It’s literally a 2-minute intramuscular shot and I’m finished.
This is something that I have to do every week (once per week) for 3 years. Not much room for out of area vacations coming up.

My personal issue is the “Side Effect Of The Week,” as I call it.
I’ve found that 6MP can inspire a variety of body changes.
Constipation, diarrhea (and rarely the two together, although that’s another unpleasant description), sometimes a migraine, sometimes odd fatigue, and sometimes nothing. Usually the side effects don’t last too long, and they’re really not that big of a deal. Again, compare to what others have to do. I keep getting reminded of “poor me,” and yet others don’t see the flip-side. I would much rather choose my situation over another.

I had a theory one day, and put it into motion.
I had drank a half-a-cup of coffee before leaving the house to get my chemo injection. On the way over, I ate a chocolate bar (nothing comes between me and that). That particular day, no problems. I continued the theory the next week. Again, fine.

I mentioned it to Sherri, the head nurse. She said it made perfect sense, especially in curbing the more common migraine-like feelings.

1) Coffee has caffeine, which constricts the blood vessels in the head. This helps to alleviate pain.
2) Chocolate helps to release endorphins (“an dolphins?”), which are the “feel good” chemicals of the brain.

So in essence, I get no head, but I feel good about having chemo. A nice bargain.
And the cost is practically one dollar.

I had discussed this with a few patients. Everyone liked the idea, except one lady who blurted out, “No thank you with your experiments. I’ll take my pain drugs, thank you very much.”

I asked her if she liked drugs, and how much she was paying for them. $30. per pill, I believe was her answer.
Everyone gasped and told her she was nuts. Cocoa and coffee for a dollar was a much better drug trial - as set by me.
Of course, I did remind everyone to check with their doctors before trying that. I didn’t need someone with allergies or such suddenly keeling over. But apparently the treatment did work for a few people. Great! And the smarmy drug lady, I guess continues her vein of doing drugs, and wasting money. (Isn’t that what they told us not to do in high school?)