What to eat with chemo?

Hi Missy,

I had horrible diarrhea the whole time I was on Taxotere, Herceptin, and Perjeta. My record was 32 trips to the bathroom in one day. It was just awful. I tried every adjustment to my diet I could. My MO cultured my stool several times and found nothing. The only med which seemed to help was prednisone. I couldn't stay on it, but it might work for you.

If there was a silver lining, it was that I never once vomited.

In my case, the diarrhea was an indicator of an allergy to Taxotere. You might want to check that out. I should add that within a week of finishing my Taxotere, my stool was normal.

My MO suggested protein drinks, Greek yogurt, oatmeal, and such like. I did lose weight and I had to be weaned onto real foods. I was miserable but I survived. Since I was fortunate enough to have a 100% response to the chemo, I figure it was worth it. Of course, that's in hindsight. At the time, I thought I was going to die.

I hope you can find something which will ease this very nasty SE.

bride

Compazine helped me a lot with nausea. I started ginger pills 2-3 days in advance, then stopped them. As soon as I got home from chemo, I started a staggered regimen of compazine and Zofran, as well as the steroids during A/C and Ativan. This went on for several days.

I did not have diarrhea--in fact, the opposite. This also kept me from eating much. If you want to try the brat diet, I don't see any reason why not to, but I feel that in this situation, the nausea and diarrhea is different than during a stomach bug or food poisoning, so I don't know if that diet would work well or not. I was able to take lots of water. There are now some clear, fruit-flavored Ensure drinks that you could try, as well as Gatorade. Try jello as well. I found it hard to get toast, bananas and applesauce some days after chemo.

I did feel that the pre-medication with ginger helped once I started it.