More Tips (and a Shopping List) for Getting Through Chemo
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nopink - great recipes. Thanks for sharing. Something cold in my mouth always felt good.
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bumping
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And since the threads are moving so fast this afternoon - bumping again.
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hi
I have questions... if is better to exercise daily, but only shower hair once or twice week, will it cause more oil at scalp? When we should reduce washing hair after first chemo? I am using cool cap
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I washed my hair once or twice a week until it started falling out not long after the 2nd infusion. Sorry, I didn't cold cap so I can't speak to that. If you're preparing for chemo, you should probably join the June chemo thread. Or even the May chemo thread. Either of those should have someone who knows.
Do go to 'my profile' and put in your diagnosis & treatment plans to date so people responding will be able to give better answers.
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Thank You ~ MinusTwo ~ for keeping this thread so active!
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Nico - no, thank YOU. There are so many good tips that I hope can help some newbies.
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Bumping for Iamloved
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Bumping just because there's so much good information
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Bumping for Sheila . . .
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what is the best advice to reduce diarrhoea? I had tworound chemo done and diarrhoea is the one if the main SE, it will thn cause fever if I didn't manage well.., now plan to plan ahead remedy for round 3..
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IsMe - If you read through even just the header of this thread, you will have seen this:
Diarrhea
• Imodium is good for stopping this
• Key worry is dehydration, so keep drinking water!
• Stay away from sugary things, as refined sugar can aggravate diarrhea
• From a dietary perspective, you can try the BRAT diet: Banana, Rice, Applesauce, ToastThe main danger is that you will be come dehydrated. I actually went in to the infusion center and had a full bag of saline infused in between each 3 week chemo treatment. I went on a BRAT diet - (see below). You can add plain boiled potatoes or plain crackers. If it got really bad, I took Imodium a couple of times - WITH the approval of my doctor. Do talk to your docs first since the addition of any drugs should be discussed & approved. It always stopped after the first week of 10 days. Edited to say - I still lost 60 pounds that I didn't need to lose.
The BRAT diet is a bland-food diet that is often recommended for adults and children. BRAT stands for Bananas, Rice, Applesauce andToast. The BRAT diet can help you recover from an upset stomach or diarrhea for the following reasons: It includes "binding" foods.
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IsMe - there's lots of discussion about diarrhea among those currently in chemo. Here's the link to July2020 chemo thread. I found it very useful to read & discuss what was happening with others at the same point in time. I also went back & read the month before.
https://community.breastcancer.org/forum/69/topics...
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MinusTwo-
Thanks. Yes I read about these info. Took immodium, drink water and BRAT. And I practice all. I am just wondering if we know if it will happen on let’s say Day 4 after the infusion, are we able to reduce it if we do something ahead like one day 2 and 3 onward and it will help to reduce the quantity or frequency of diarrhea? Trying to figure out anyways to pre-plan so this will be less impact
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IsMe - check out the July 2020 Chemo link. It's good to compare with others currently going through the same things. And ask your doc what he will approve.
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MinusTwo-
Yes I will read from there as well. So far practicing few tips from this thread help me reduce alot of SE. Just for this diarrhea part seem only have steps to stop (Imodium etc) when it happen but we do not have steps to preplan ahead to reduce the impact. Will try out possible ways and ifit work for my round 3, I will share here as well
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bumping for Melbo
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Thank You, MinusTwo, for your dedication to this important thread!
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Bumping for Carol . . .
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Hey Nico - Yes - this thread has sooooo much good information. I wouldn't have made it through without many of these tips.
Sorry I forgot to bump last month to keep it active on the list for the new member. Maybe I'll remember twice in September.
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Bumping for Sara
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Bumping again to keep active and for Denise.
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Bumping yet again to keep the thread active. SO many good tips.
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Go for two days in a row? FIghtingMama found the surgery thread useful. So maybe this one too?
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Thanks for thinking of me with the bump MinusTwo -- I appreciate it. I am also active in the JulyChemo club and am part of the frequent diarrhea group. I don't think anything can prevent the diarrhea from starting, I just take Imodium after each round in the bathroom. Normally for me, the Imodium gets it under control between pills 2 and 3. My worst day I took 5 pills in about 4 hours, but it started working after that. That being said, after my second cycle of chemo I had exactly two days without any diarrhea. Every other day was at least one round and Imodium. I notice the days i don't take Imodium.
One other thing I will include on this list that I put on the July2020 chemo boards -- if you have frequent diarrhea, I really recommend drinking watered down pedialyte advanced. Watered down it tastes okay -- I do about 1/3 pedialyte and 2/3 water -- by itself it's WAY too sweet. It helps keep my electrolytes replenished and I stay hydrated that way since plain water usually tastes funny. I tried watered down gatorade as well, which does work for some people, but it agitated my stomach much more than the pedialyte did.
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Melbo - I did go back into the infusion center for an extra bag of saline solution. I went every time in the week between every single 3 week TCHP infusion. IT kept me from being dehydrated.
I also drank Carnation Instant Breakfast with the addition of Nestles Beneprotein - the supplement that MD Anderson recommends to many cancer patients.
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bumping for kdholt
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another week and another bump. Great information here.
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bumping for Marie
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Bumping for Carol . . .
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