Remember the episode of Friends when Phoebe was pregnant as the surrogate mother for her brother’s triplets? Phoebe, the staunch vegetarian, became a ravenous carnivore during pregnancy. In this episode of my life, once again life imitates art. Shortly after my second treatment I was craving turkey. I tried to avoid it. I even tried to wish it away. During my chemo teaching they kept telling to listen to my body. This has not always been the best advice for me so I kept trying to ignore the craving.

Finally I began to think that perhaps I wasn’t getting enough protein. My taste buds had been screwed up since the first treatment and fish wasn’t very appealing to me. Perhaps the protein was indeed a little low. The craving kept coming back. I gave in. A carnivore emerged, reared its ugly head and ate a turkey sandwich. And it was good. I thought the craving would be satisfied, but eventually I had another, and then later another still. And they were all good.

In the episode of Friends, Phoebe, struggling with her animal rights conscience, strikes a deal with Joey where he will not eat meat for the duration of her pregnancy. Her justification is that it would cancel out her carnivorous ways and no additional animals would be sacrificed.

One question remains. Who volunteers to give up turkey sandwiches for the duration of my chemo?