Vitamins for us Trip Negs....????

Traci,

The vitamin thing has had me so confused, I don't know if I did or didn't do the right things. Oncologist told me to take vitamin e, later learned it is bad during chemo. He told me to take one a day vitamins; read later, they contain biotin...he said using airborne was fine, and when I felt a cold coming on, which was frequent, I did use the airborne. I couldn't keep the one a days down, if I could swallow them; gigantic things. Ended up not taking the vitamin e because they seemed repulsive. I am anemic, and wanted to take the ql0 for heart protection...they onc said no. There were a lot of anit oxidants we were told not to use, as they would interfere with the chemo/later rads treatments. I ate a lot of homemade soup; especially with lentils, black beans, cabbage, chicken broth, and fresh veggies. Haven't cooked since neuropathy affected hands...keep dropping things, cutting myself, and burning myself. If you hear of a perfecto vitamin and a good supplement to regain energy, please let me know!

I keep craving sugar and carbs, chemobrain induced as willpower and clear thinking have gone completely since last November. Onc. has some reason why Neuontin it "out" of me, so I tried the Mitox of whatever it's called, Vitamin B's 6, 12, and something else, but I already was having intestinal problems; those didn't help anything, and they made me sick.

Hope you find a good one soon!

Thanks

Indi

Funny you should ask. I chronicled my supplements in a recent blog entry here: http://360.yahoo.com/whata_day

I think diet though is more important than supplements. I eat lots of whole grains, flax, fresh fruit and veg, very little red meat and alcohol (regardless of the results of that recent dietary study). There was a study that showed a very favorable impact of a low-fat diet on recurrence rates for triple negs (I want to say recurrence was reduced by 42% compared to other stats....must go and find that study again). In any case, supplements don't offset a bad diet.

Traci, i pay sporadic attention to football. DH loves the Vikes, so i follow the vikes more than the Texans. i can't blv they beat the cowboys, either!

that is SO good to know about the no st. john's wort! i've been taking it pretty much every day to offset my crankiness.

yes, my hair fell out. i've got about 1/2" sporadic stubble right now, but i have a shadow, so i think more hair is fixing to come in.

Ha Traci...me disciplined?  I guess I put up a good front, eh?  I like my wine too.  Best of all though are my Friday night martinis...I'm currently obsessed with espresso martinis.  I've just figured out that alcohol is not much of a concern for me, being trip neg.  I'll still go lite but I'm refusing to give it up completely.

I have taken supplements and vitamins after the failure of first chemo tx.  I can repair my blood in 4 to 6 days after chemo.  And worked through 21 mths of tx.  I have no mets.  I most have done something right???

Oooh Traci...where on the May Chemo thread (I plead chemo brain)?  I didn't mark that convo as a favorite and have no idea what I was discussing.

Hi Traci,

I can't seem to find the conversation either....(sigh)

That pic (at least, the one I most recently posted here) was taken a week ago, which would make it 3 months post chemo.  I had my last Taxotere on May 24th but my hair had already started to resprout while on Taxotere.  Now I'm on carboplatin which doesn't seem to be affecting my hair (I was told it might thin).  My hair has always grown 'fast' but, in this case, not fast enough for my taste, and curls....ahhh, it's so darn curly I don't quite know what to do with it.  My head feels like a brillo pad.

so, is biotin good or bad? a lot of people are taking biotin to get their hair to grow back.

was the kabosh on q10 only during chemo? cuz my onc said, on our 2nd post-chmo appt, take coQ10, and turmeric. he also said red wine and ketchup both have good stuff in them. i would go more for tomato paste rather than ketchup, as most ketchup has high fructose corn syrup.