What to eat with chemo?

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Missy328
Missy328 Member Posts: 31

Hi all. I was diagnosed with stage IV IBC on dec 23 and have had 5 treatments with chemo and herceptin. I'm now having a problem with keeping food in my stomach. No vomiting, just loose stools. I'm on a no sugar, low carb, mostly natural diet and have taken pepto and compazine but am hungry! Any suggestions? Also, anyone else out there on a no sugar diet? Thanks

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  • ibcmets
    ibcmets Member Posts: 4,286
    edited January 2015

    I would add some carbs in while you are doing chemo & bannanas if you have loose stools. They suggest not eating raw foods at this time as they can be hard on your stomach like uncooked veggies or fruits. Make chicken soup with noodles, eat yogurt. The added carbs will help with the hunger & loose stools.

    Terri

  • bride
    bride Member Posts: 382
    edited February 2015

    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

  • Missy328
    Missy328 Member Posts: 31
    edited February 2015

    Thank you Bride. I will try protein shakes! yes I ended up having saltines as well as other non-white carbs which helped. I also just started taking compazine around the clock and this helped greatly. It seems that three days after treatment is when I feel queasy. I'm also going to try ginger capsules. Has anyone tried these?

  • Missy328
    Missy328 Member Posts: 31
    edited February 2015

    Bon - I will be following that BRAT diet more next time- thanks for the reminder! I can't seem to think straight when I'm feeling like that! Although my stools were loose, they weren't frequent so I think my lytes were okay but I'll keep an eye on that. Thanks for the advice! I'm just juicing on my good days!

  • Missy328
    Missy328 Member Posts: 31
    edited February 2015

    Ibcmets. Thank you- I'm just not going to worry as much about really low carbs when I'm feeling that badly and do the BRAT diet more. It's so nice to chat with women in the same boat as me!

  • mary625
    mary625 Member Posts: 1,056
    edited February 2015

    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.


  • Missy328
    Missy328 Member Posts: 31
    edited February 2015

    thank you Mary. You have a point. The nurse in me thinks BRAT diet but I will do alternating of comp and zofran. Thanks

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