Starting Chemo February 2009?

KerryMac

Good morning all.

Kristine - hi there! great to hear you are doing well. Your hair will grow, really. Mine is so super short, but I am just going out now bare headed - a few people have a good look, but it actually doesn't bother me. I have no idea what to do with short hair either....! Don't worry too much about Rads. I know some people struggle with it, but for me I have had no noticeable SE's at all. I will be happy to be done with it, but I have really had no trouble. I think having my appointment first thing in the morning has helped - it gets it out of the way fast, and then I can go on and have a "normal' day. I'd be into a get together in Vegas at some point - I would so love to meet everyone!

Liz - I am taking Vit D and calcium.  Once radiation is done I might start some other supplements. I have "tweaked' my diet since Dx though - I have increased my fruit and vege intake to about 10 servings a day, I'm trying to get plenty of Omega 3's (sardines and walnuts!) and cut down on meat and (sob!) alcohol. Once rads is done I will start back on the Green Tea too - I was using Japanese Green tea, seeped for about 10 minutes, so it is very strong! I am also avoiding soy as much as is possible. Not sure if it will help any, but I figure it can't do any harm. Also make sure I get my 3-5 hours walking in a week.

I think I gained about 5lbs all told with Chemo, although it also went up crazily during it. It is a little stubborn around my belly, but that could also be the Tamoxifen. I used to be about this weight when I was on the pill, so maybe this is just what I have to get used to. All my clothes still fit fine, I just think my tummy is fat!

Well, it finally looks as though it might be a nice day here, after a rainy week. Hope everyone has a good day! 

MicheleS

Liz & Kerry~  I take curcumin, resveratrol, CoQ10, boswellia, ECGC (green tea extract), calcium, melatonin, and active cultures.  I also drink green tea 2-3X a day.  I take prescription D3. I eat 2 T of ground flax seeds.  I don't eat any soy and rarely eat red meat or chicken.  I *do* eat tons of fruits and veggies (a lot raw) and some nuts, beans, and whole grains.  I have 1 serving a day of eggs, yogurt, or fish.  The bulk of my protein comes from beans, nuts, and grains (like quinoa).  I also exercise for 45 min to an hour a day.  All of this is loosely based on "The anti-cancer" and "Eat to Live".  Some of the supplements are some of the reccs over at "nosurrender".  I also read lots of the literature from published studies.  Finally, I ran everything through my oncologist before starting (after chemo).

Hope everyone has a great day today!!! We are going to daily Mass this am and then maybe a movie (Ice Age) this afternoon.  The one thing that does stress me out is movie popcorn.LOL.  I'm sure I'll want some but as you can see above... mvie popcorn wouldn't fit in my list! LOL!

KerryMac

Michele - well, popcorn is made from corn....! Enjoy the movie.

Denali

Kerry - do you have a website of your photos?  Jaimieh - hurry and post yours to a website!  We'd love to see the photos you both have taken!

But, Michelle, popcorn is a vegetable!  Isn't it good fiber too??  (See how i rationalize??)

I'll be going to my DD & SIL's mountain house this afternoon and we're going up on top of one of the 'hills' to make a campfire and watch fireworks from there.  Their house is at 10,500 ft (!) so if we go even higher, wish me luck breathing.  I wanted to make s'mores, but can't remember how you heat the whole thing--wrap it in foil???  Aren't I pititful?  Thank goodness for google.

HAPPY FOURTH!

elizzim

Wow, Michele, I thought I was health-conscious, but you blow me away! All my little "exceptions" to the normal rules (desserts when out to dinner, a piece or 2 of chocolate with tea) add up to not having changed much at all. But YOU will be my inspiration! I'm actually going to print out your list, and use it as a jumping off point for my new regimen.

It's confusing, because my oncologist (MSK, renowned), just poo-poos all supplements. Last time this came up, he said, "Why would you take any of that? You don't need it. Calcium, maybe." And then I read somewhere that calcium can block the metabolism of tamoxifen - don't even know it that's true, it's just one of those tidbits of info that came my way. So I'm utterly confused. I think it may be time to see a holistic physician who specialized in cancer care.  

BTW - is flax OK when you're estrogen +? That's another one I'm confused about. 

Jaimieh

I take CoQ10, melatonin, magnesium (this is a RX), calcium with vit. D (2x) and a woman's once a day (which makes my stomach upset).  That is all that I take for now but I may add something for neuropathy in the future. 

Michele~ I have popcorn but I take out what I am going to eat before the rest of the family smothers it in butter

gcpommom

I'm not doing very well with changing my ways, either.   I do take magnesium/calcium/vit D supplement, B6, and still taking the L glutamine.  I need to buy some multi-vitamins without extra herbal ingredients; mine have ginseng and ginko, which interferes with the blood thinners I'm on.

I'm with Jaimie, the supplements upset my stomach, too.  That's why I never took vitamins on a regular basis.  Plus they make me hungry.  I haven't changed my eatiing habits yet....I've always loved my baked goods (not so much candy/chocolate). 

I want to eat better, but I tend to skip meals alot, snack when I'm hungry, and do most of my eating after 8pm.  I'm not really hungry before then.  I've always been like that.  My 'breakfast' usually consists of coffee and nicorette gum.  I know, I know......

 I was never a fruit/veggie person either, so that is another hard adjustment for me.  I don't eat much red meat anyway, but think eating chicken is ok, isn't it?  I like chicken.  It's not red meat, so I thought that was ok.  I don't like fish, yuck. 

Once I am through this....whatever it is I'm going through right now.....I will get some books and change my diet for the better.

Hugs

Judy

elizzim

I guess there are no absolutes with regard to diet. Many would say that a vegan diet (no meat or dairy at all) would be best for anyone with cancer, and also to eliminate all sugar. It's hard to get behind something that extreme when it's not even clinically proven that these claims are true. But I do believe that sugar should be consumed in moderation (so as I say, not as I do with this one!), that our diets should consist primarily of plant foods (veggies) and whole grains, and that any meat or chicken (and fruits and veggies) should really be organic. That one I'm pretty sure of, and I was adhering to that long before my diagnosis. The "Crazy, Sexy Cancer" book, while extreme in the diet department, does have a lot of good info about this stuff. And inspiration. 

Beverly11

Apple - Thanks for the reply.  I  will be praying for you this weekend. 

xpect miracles - Congrats on the running.  I am trying to run but walking seems to be my current fitness regime.  As soon as I start running (extremely slow); my heart rates elevates like I am sprinting and my legs feel like they have weights attached to them.  My joints are sore this week from zometa and chemo too.  But, I am a stubborn Taurus and will keep trying.  

Elizzim - I am taking 1500 mg of calcium and 2000 vitamin D3.  I am 'still' waiting for my vitamin D test results.  Drs. in Canada are prescribing a minimum of 2000 mg.  My husband's Dr. recommended 4000 to him just for general health yesterday.  He doesn't have any health problems.  I have started to take maitake extract this week too.  It is supposed to very good for our immune systems.  

Kerry- Love the hair.  Gives me hope.  That could be me in 6 weeks.  Congrats on the bathroom.  Your contractor seems really efficient.  

Have a great weekend everyone!

Denali

Someone sent me an article describing 2 studies.  One compared recurrence in a group that added fruit and veggies to their diet; the other study compared recurrence between those who exercised and those who didn't.  There was NO difference in those who changed their diets!!  Amazing, huh?  But there was a statistically significant difference of less recurrence with those who exercised.  Here's the beginning of the articlem which describes the diet study (PM me if you want the whole article which goes on to describe the exercise study):

Diet and Exercise for Breast Cancer Patients

May 2009

Over the last year, there has been a shift in what we know about diet and breast cancer. Data from the Women's Healthy Eating and Living (WHEL) trial has been analyzed and published and it isn't what anyone expected.  This study followed 3,088 women who had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Of the total women, 1,537 were encouraged to change their diet to eat more vegetables, fruits and fiber and to decrease the fat they ate. The goal was to eat 5 vegetable servings, 3 fruit servings and 16 ounces of vegetable juice each day while at the same time cutting down fat.  The control group was encouraged to simply aim for the ‘Five a day' total of fruits and vegetable that the government recommends.

When this study was started in the mid 1990s, these recommendations were considered to be the ‘healthy diet' for breast cancer survival and so this is what we've encouraged our patients to do.  

The researchers tracked cancer recurrence, diagnosis of a new primary cancer, or death from any cause in both groups.  The extra fruits and vegetables made no difference.

Here is the bottom line:

"Over the mean 7.3-year follow-up, 256 women in the intervention group (16.7%) vs 262 in the comparison group (16.9%) experienced an invasive breast cancer event, and 155 intervention group women (10.1%) vs 160 comparison group women (10.3%) died."

All those years of careful eating doesn't appear to make any appreciable difference.  

While WHEL pretty much trashed the idea of making basic diet changes for breast cancer patients, a number of studies now tell us that exercise is very valuable for this same group of people.

Beverly11

Hi Kerry - Just wondering if you were told to avoid green tea while on rads?  Were you told to avoid anything else while on rads?  I am taking melatonin and they told me that was find to take while on chemo.

I was told to avoid soy and flax and I have to check with the dietician but I think that that is forever as I am ER+.

MicheleS

Liz~  I don't know about flax with ER+.  The primary phytoestrogen in flax is actually a lignan and doesn't bind very well to estrogen receptors.  However, I'm not sure that you'd want ANYTHING that binds if you are ER+.  That'd be a topic for an alternative med doc.  My MD's mom had cancer and she is into holistic healing... That's how he got his open mind.  He said that before her dx, he poo-pooed all of that but now thinks it has merit in conjunction with traditional approaches.  So... he hit me with the worst chemo and now supports my lifestyle changes.  Believe me... this is tough for me to do but if there's even a chance it will help me to see my kid grow up, I'm doing it.  I also read "Crazy Sexy Cancer tips" and think that she has a point... I *may* jump on board with green smoothies and wheat grass later but the scientific literature doesn't say much about it... I won't be doing colonics... LOL!  You should read "Anti-Cancer" and/or "Eat to Live" they are more moderate in their approaches than Kris Carr.  Good luck!

Bethie1

Thanks everyone regarding the pain in the ***!! We're friends, but he's been kicked out since end of May!!! 

Also regarding boosts, my sister reminded me I'm HER2- so boosts won't apply to me.  It's only when you're HER2+ you need them!!!  I will of course be taking tamoxifen after rads for the 5 year recommendation, get my port out after rads, and be getting bone and CAT scans just to make sure cancer didn't spread elsewhere being as it was in my lymph nodes also!!

KerryMac

I was told no to flax too. End of the day, they don't know, so I was advised not to eat it. My Onc thinks the whole diet thing is a crock of s**t!! She and I have a bit of a joke about it actually! I am not being extreme, I still eat Chicken, ocasionally red meat, etc. But in general I can't see how lots of fruit and vege is going to do me any harm at all. In the very least it will boost my immune system, so I will be healthier overall.

Bev - I have not been taking supplements during Rads, I stopped the green tea too - I was brewing it really strong (10 min) so thought it best just to stop and start again after Rads finish.  My Rad Onc said no supplements, but Vit D and Calcium was OK. Yes, you too could be as bald as me in a few weeks! It is funny, I haven't worn my wig for a week or two - I get lots of startes, but actually it doesn't bother me at all.

Well, we have been all over the city today looking for a mirror for the new bathroom. Found nothing in Home depot (one there we liked was out of stock!) or Ikea or Canadian Tire.  Will try Lowes tomorrow...

Hope you are all having a great weekend. 

living4today

Michele,

I am reading Anti-cancer right now...I have found the information very easy to read and understand....Implementing will be harder to do. 

You furries are all so great!  Hope everyone had a nice holiday!

KerryMac

There is another one called "Foods that fight Cancer" by Beliveau and Gingras that I have found to be good.

Here are also a couple of simple, straight forward recommendations - all easy enough to implement, i think. 

http://www.softress.com/pdf/Nutrition_and_Breast_Cancer_Part_II.pdf

http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:0D1zRLKVZbkJ:cancer.ucsf.edu/crc/nutrition_breast.pdf+ucsf+nutrition+and+breast+cancer&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca 

There is nothing really too "faddy' suggested, just good solid nutrition. 

Enjoy your day!! Have some cabbage.....

MicheleS

Just wanted to add something about flax... ALL of the animal studies have been promising when looking at the impact of flax on ER-  breast cancer (and other non-breast cancers too).

Kerry~ Thanks for the links.  I'll have to look.  I love reading about nutrition.  But, it is *hard* to implement.  I had 2 Newmans (fake) oreos last night and 1/2 of DH's beer. I really want to get rid of everything in the house but that wouldn't be fair to my kids. <sigh>

Hope everyone has a great day today!  We saw Ice Age yesterday and had fun.  I told DD that I'd take her to the children's museum (sp?) today.  Looking forward to it!

KerryMac

Yep, I would say Flax for ER- is great - it is just the "possibility" that it may encourage estrogen in ER+ - I don't think they know for sure.

I really don't think the odd indulgence is going to hurt either. Any diet has to be livable. I really  couldn't imagine never eating a cookie again, or having a glass of wine. The whole point of doing all this is so we can live! And that includes treating ourselves occasionally.

Michele - have fun at the kids Museum! Isn't it lovely being able to get out and about without feeling crappy. 

gcpommom

The thing that makes me nervous is that although my current bc was er- , I did have DCIS back in 2004 and never had the receptors checked....it could've been er+....so if there were a possibility of a recurrance of that, should I even be eating flax or soy? (I don't eat much soy anyway) Or couldn't a new primary be er+???   It's so confusing.

I am so limited on my veggies right now due to the Coumadin....I can't eat broccoli or many green veggies, because of the high Vit K content.  I get really nervous about the coumadin, and the way my levels jump all over the place, so although I could probably eat small amounts of these veggies, I am afraid to since they only check my levels every 2 weeks now.  I can't wait to be off the blood thinners.

DH got my bike down from the rafters yesterday, so I plan to use that for exercise for now....however, yesterday was the worst day I've had in months for SE's, so I rode the bike about 3 houses, and felt nauseous, so came back.  I have no idea what was going on with me....I had really bad pain in back and legs, and I haven't felt that kind of fatigue since the AC.  I am so glad that I don't feel that bad today.

It is a beautiful morning here....have my nephew's birthday party today, DD's fiance's birthday today, and then fireworks tonight.  The party is at my sister's house, she has a heated pool, and I haven't ventured out in a bathing suit yet.  I am nervous about that.  I don't mind if the scars show, I mean, I had surgery of course there's scarring.  I worry about the 'concave' part of my chest showing, I hate that.  Is everyone's chest like that after mx, or did my surgeon screw up?  I always figured I'd simply be flat, not have 2 indents that show through everything.

Hugs

Judy

xpectmiracles

Judy, I can really relate to eating a lot at night. that seems to be the time of day I eat the most. I drink soy milk, probably a serving a day. Do you ladies think I should stop? How much does it interfere with Tamoxifen?

Beverly, I felt exactly as you described a few weeks back when I attempted to run. Even walking was making my legs burn. As soon as I tried to speed up at all I would get extremely short of breath. I waited a few weeks and tried again and it was better. I think we need to wait for our bodies red blood cell counts to go up enough to get the energy.

Bethie1

Cheryl-- I agree about resting up while our red blood cell counts get back to "normal"  I haven't done my gym routine since diagnosis for fatigue reasons, and just feel it's best to wait til I'm up and running

MicheleS

Apple~ Pls post after you MD appt today!!! Lots of prayers!

Denali

Apple, along with Michelle, sending lots of prayers.  The room will be quite crowded as we'll all be with you in spirit.

webwriter

Thinking about you all today, sending love and hugs. Denali has the right of it. Scooch over. I'm taking my spot over here on the side, handing out boiled peanuts and iced tea.

Artemis

*squeezes into the room, hands out boas*  apple, I'm praying very hard for you.  We love you.

apple

omg - .

NED!!!!

i just got home from my last chemo for hopefully a long time.  so happy.. i've just been nuts.  today is the first day i've EVER cried.  i never cried this last 16 months.. ever.

my onc. and i were both convinced i'd do 6 more months of chemo...  we could feel stuff with our fingers, but it's just stuff.  thanks so much for your your thoughts and prayers.. i'm going to have hair again.

(i'm off to buy some shampoo)

webwriter

OH APPLE! NED! NED! NED! NED! NED!

YIPEEEEEEE!!!!!!

Passing out the sparklers and the cupcakes now! 

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

living4today

CRYING TEARS OF JOY!!!!!!  YIPPEE!!!! 

MicheleS

I am literally crying!!!! I am just so happy!!!! Our Apple is OK!!! She's going to be just fine!!!

KerryMac

OMG, I am literally crying too! You go girl! I am absolutely thrilled for you.This is just the best news.

You go grow some hair!!