Tips for getting through chemotherapy
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Another bump for this very useful thread.
I'm starting chemo on Thursday and I just used all this valuable info to make my shopping list!
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Use a lint roller over your head to remove the little stubbles that remain and will poke you when you try to lie down. Works like a charm.
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Thanks Ladies! I hope this thread stays bumped or that I remember to keep checking it in the months ahead. I start chemo in about a month.
side affects scare me.....yeast infections, nauseousness, mouth sores
...hopefully iw on't have all of the ones I've read about
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hey, Steph. Make sure you are given the drug EMEND for the nausea. A friend of mine with breast cancer told me to ask for it...the onc was going to give me something else but was happy to give me the EMEND instead. I never had one minute of nausea throughout all my chemo...quite the opposite. I couldn't stop eating.
With EMEND, you are given 3 pills. You take one I think an hour before chemo and then one pill a day for the next two days. It's awesome stuff.
Good luck to you!
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Thanks for the advice gsg!
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things going bump in the night...
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not my idea, but a good one anyway...
if you have to go to the ER, stay in the car and let someone else go in for you to announce that you are a cancer patient and need a private room, NOW.
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bumping for newbies....
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Bumping this up again - I thought it was very helpful.
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bump, very helpful
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bump, very helpful
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I don't know if it was mentioned elsewhere, but both my oncologist and a friend who was both a survivor and oncology nurse recommended eating a popsicle, or something else very cold, while being given adriamycin. Apparently there has been some inconclusive research indicating it prevents mouth sores. I never did get a single mouth sore so maybe it is effective.
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things going bump in the night...
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Thanks, everybody, for keeping this thread active. Now all I need to do is take the time to read through it!
otter
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bump.
otter
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What is the best way to control the constipation, for my next treatment, I had a very hard time with it for my first . I need advice, how to preplan my next treatment without constipation.
thanks
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Angie, I started with senokot the first night and didn't have any problems. Today, day 4, I'm having the opposite. Want to combine symptoms and see if they'll both go away?
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Hi Angie,
I take one square of chocolate ExLax the night of chemo, and another one the following evening. Then I drink gallons of water and tea. I also eat Activia yogurt every single day. So far, so good. I think the secret is taking something at the same time as the chemo before things can get really bottled up, so to speak.
Hope this helps everything come out all right. In the end.
Love,
Annie
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The Purple Cow
Combine Milk of Magnesia and prune juice (I substituted prunes for the prune juice)
This was the recommended to me by my chemo nurse and it did the trick.
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I am desperate right now its being 3 days , I have done everything possible to go and no relief, I just heat up some prune juice, and drank it, I am so irritable, I am so mad, I am so cranky, I just have to go.
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Another thing is if you get hemorrhoids use the tucks medicated pad with witch hazel they work really well.
Also, one other thing I found I had to force myself to eat because AI was loosing so much weight. Even though you don't feel good or the food does not taste that good eat, because you need your strength. I was even eating at McDonalds which I don't eat but actually the Big Macs tasted pretty good I guess since I was not used to that taste, and drinking milkshakes and juice shack drinks helped too.
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Bumping up for May gals.
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Thanks. I hadn't seen this thread until tonight. I hope to weed through it tomorrow, 1 week before I start chemo.
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Angie, if you see this, this is kind of a repeat of wht I said on another thread. Start a laxitive a day or two before your next treatment, and continue taking it through at least day 4 after your treatment. Avoid binding foods, but at some point, I think peristalsis just stops. That's why things aren't moving.
If your onc gave you Emend, try the next chemo without it. That works on the center of your brain that controls the nauseous feeling and probably has something to do with the lack of peristalsis. I just had Aloxi with tx#2 and took Compozine afterwards, and that was enough to keep the nausea at bay...and I didn't have the constipation I had with tx #1.
They are so concerned with keeping the nausea away, I feel they overmedicate with those meds which can all make you constipated. So, while I can see why they want to start you out with the full spectrum, I would try cutting one out the next tx and see how it goes.
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Hi, Nancy
I hope you well, you right about the meds, the doctor did say they were going to approach my tx#2, in a different way, as far as constipation is concerned, I dont know exactly if, like you said they going to cut down the nausea dosage or give me something for constipation, I have to tell you that, thank God for Amend, because I hate to feel nausea. and of course, I do not want to suffer again the severe constipation that I had, I think that I took so much stuff for constipation, that it activated my bladder, and now I am on Levaquin for 5 days, I am so bloated, and could not sleep last night with pain.
I also want to post this tip recipe here for others:
If you are having severe diarrhea, and want to stop it:
1 Green Plantain (not banana) Usually Spanish stores or grocery hav
1 garlic clove
Olive oil (goya)
boil the plantain (pinch of salt)
mashed it, and add the garlic and olive oil.
It taste really good
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Jdg,
Hi, its funny, you said that, because when I was trying to get my taste buds back, that is exactly what I did, I remember that Big Macs always gave me the runs, so I said, I am constipated, and I have no taste, so let me grab a big mac, guess what?, it did not work for me this time on the constipation, but it worked on the taste, that just goes to show you that this anti-nausea meds, are a real whammy.....
P.s. Notice, they dont make big macs, like they use to anymore, I guess inflation (lol)
Take care
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Aquaphor is great for the dry hand and feet. And never leave the house with out tissues. Really good thread.
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