Mom wants to give up chemo...

Oh Sophie,

I can hear the concern in your words. I would suggest talking to your Mom's oncologist about how your mom is doing. The doctor may be able to change her cocktail (chemo combination).

She is already half the way through AC. What motivated me is the thought that if I stopped and cancer came back, I would regret not finishing my treatments. I wanted to do everything I could the first (and only-hopefully) time around.

I found a tapioca at a health food store that tasted good and was very soothing. It had milk and rice for nutrition. I also found sugarless peppermint candies that settled my stomach.

I hope your mom will feel better in a few days. What I remember is feeling better by the end of the week and almost back to normalat three weeks-then having another treatment.

I hope you are taking good care of yourself.  I hope you are eating and gettting enough rest. Take good care of yourself too! 

Warmly,

Sadie

I agree with what everyone else has said, especially about a short term use of anti-depressants to get your Mom through this. Also, there is a wonderful recipe book available by Rebecca Katz called ONE BITE AT A TIME. It has some great recipes and ideas to make foods attractive for patients going through cancer treatment. I highly recommend it. There are lots of other books out there too, but I've actually made many of these recipes and can attest to the soundness of the advice and the recipes. Most important is to get as much protein in your Mom as possible. If her tase buds are off, try cold smoothies. And by all means, see if you can find a support group for her to attend as she's going through the treatment.



Best of luck.

Sofie, the best time to hit this beast is the first time. Hit it hard, hit it fast. Your mom is triple negative. She has an aggressive cancer. If she quits, she has a very high risk of the cancer returning, which will be worse than what she is going through right now. Hopefully, she will continue the chemo. I know it certainly saved my life. Look in to purchasing seabands for her. From what I understand, not only do seabands curb nausea for seasickness, morning sickness and anesthesia sickness...I've heard that it curbs chemo sickness as well. Best to you and your mom.

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I don't think you should stop, but I also think you should talk to your mom's oncologist about trying TC (the T being taxol or taxotere) C instead of AC.  From what I have read chemo is important for triple negative, its not so important as what chemo, just chemo.  TC has shown alot of promise for replacing AC because of adriamycin's effect on the heart.  If your oncologist won't consider this get a second opinion.  After two treatments with AC another alternative is just to switch to weekly Taxol.  Ask for the weekly rather than every two weeks of Taxol, the side effects are less and it is at least, if not more effective than the once every two weeks.  Taxotere has to be every two weeks because its too hard to manage the side effects on a weekly schedule.  Whatever you chemo you change to stay on a weekly or every two weeks schedule,  they have proven themselves to be much better then the once every 3 weeks.  It seems the less time between treatments doesn't give the cancer cells time to recover between treatments.

I know two stage I ladies in my home town who got Taxol and Avastin.  Doctors have alot of leeway in prescribing chemo, it really comes down to what they are willing to do.