Starting chemo next week...need some advice

[Abkbjbjb]

Hi
So I have recently been diagnosed with breast cancer and am starting chemo next Friday. Obviously I'm dreading it but just wondered if anyone on here who has been through it who could help me prepare for it!! I wondered if there were any supplements I should be taking or anything I can take to boost m6 immunity pre & during treatment.
I am currently taking the following supplement each day_
2 omega 3 paradox capsules
1 night strength vitamin c & zinc
1 x magnesium with b6
1x high strength vitamin d

I wonder are these all safe to take during treatment 🤔.
I am eating very healthily (was pretty diagnosis anyway) & have cut out pretty much all sugar.
I am taking a wheatgrass shot each morning but I am undecided as to whether to order more as I may not be able to stomach it during treatment? It's hard to get down even now!,

If anyone had any tips or advice before I start this journey it would be much appreciated 😀

I'm sorry I don't know the answers to your questions, but just want to say I'm really sorry life has dealt you such a blow

Hope it goes as well as it can xx

Hi Abkbjbjb
I am just out the other side of chemo for breast cancer. I still have a long way to way but so far so good.

I am not much good on your exact questions but I found these things helpful. Note am in no way a medical person so this is just personal tips.

Lots of homemade soups, batches when I had the energy and defrosted and eaten in small portions on the bad days.
My mate loaned me a juicer, so squished up whatever fruit and veg was in the house, nothing too citrusy, which was gentle on the stomach.

A nurse friend did recommend wheatgrass for cancer treatment, but tbh I had let it slide.

Just ate normal dinners, heavy emphasis on comforting starchy childhood type dinners, whatever you fancy really, it's more important you eat and enjoy something pleasant and fairly nourishing than pick sadly at a plate of steamed kale. Eat small portions and give it a half houR to settle. You can always go back for more if it agrees with you. Dont get freaked out though, you wont be this delicate all the time but some days you will be, most likely days 3 to 7.

After every meal take a spoon of bio yoghurt, I found it great for preventing mouth sores, and seemed to work it's way down the gullet helping prevent heartburn and settling the tum as well.

Some new and different flavoured teas, you might go off your normal favourites but the comfort of the warm mug is great this time of year and it's great for keeping hydrated.

Rest rest rest. I dont know your circumstances but rest whatever chance you get. Take any help. Dont be superwoman. Save your energy for your kids if you have them. Then dp/close family & friends as applicable. Adults will have to understand and the house won't fall down for lack of cleaning (obv hygiene is important but being Mrs Hinch is not!) . Your job if you work has rules they have to stick to so let them look after themselves too til you're back on your feet.

You will have to be infection aware, not just covid but any infection. My consultant said he had patients who tested positive for covid and they still came through ok. The real problem is if you catch it your treatment plan will be delayed til you're all clear and its best to just get on with it, if at all possible.

I feel for you. It's so daunting at the start. But the treatments these days really are so good, so try to keep hopeful. Bad days WILL pass and allow yourself whatever you need to get through them. I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers (hope you don't mind the prayers bit)

I am sorry you are going through this and in case you haven't seen anyone go through chemo before I just wanted to reassure you that it's not all misery all the time.
As pp said usually day 2/3-5/6 were bad for me, but I was on a two week cycle so had more than a week feeling fairly normal each time.
And bad on AC was just a general miserable feeling with some breathlessness. It's not as it's portrayed in the films.
Speak up at your appointments if you have bad side effects there are meds for everything now so if the first anti nausea doesn't work well they will give you a different brand for the second round etc
Drink loads of water before your chemo, it will make finding a vein easier for the cannula and once your hooked up you can wheel the drips around to go to the toilet if necessary.
I craved salt and some days ate only crisps, if you are a healthy eater in general then maybe have things in with salty flavours. Tuna, tomatoes with salt sprinkled on, nuts etc.
Get 2 water bottles and have one in your hand and one in the fridge all the time. They recommend 2 -3 litres of water a day.
I had a small bag I carried around with me containing my meds, notebook, mouthwash.
Before a chemo session I would write each days meds and the times they were to be taken then tick as I took. It can be hard when your tired to remember what you took when.
Good luck 🍀

Sorry wrong thread

@justgeton thank you so much, so kind of you to take the time to comment & say that.😊

@Septemberries Thank you SO much for taking the time to reply all of your wonderful advice 😊. I am delighted to hear that he have got to the end of your chemo, I hope the rest of your recovery is a bit more plain sailing 🙏🏼. Are you on to radiotherapy next?
Great advice with regards to food, if it's anything like pregnancy nausea & sickness I will probably crave everything unhealthy! Great advice on the bio yoghurt, I will get stocked up on that.
I have an 8 & a 6 year old so I will most definitely have to preserve all my energy for when they get home from school!
Thanks again for your advice & I wish you all the very best with the rest of your treatment xx

It is hard to generalize so I would ask your oncologist what is safe to take. Some herbal supplements are a no go for some treatments, but some vitamins and minerals are beneficial, particularly if you can't eat much or can only stomach beige foods. Best of luck with it

@M0rT thank you so much for taking the time to reply 😊and thank you for all your wonderful tips & advice. Glad to hear that you had a week where you felt a bit better, with mine being 3 weekly Im Sure I will hopefully benefit from a week of feeling a bit better 🙏🏼. Just want it started now!! Thanks again xx

@SatishTheCat thank you for your reply 😊. I am with oncologist the day before my first session so I will go through supplements with him then. Thanks x

@Abkbjbjb you will probably have two weeks of normality so. The more spread out it is the better people tend to recover in between.
I know it's nerve wracking before you start but you will come home after the first chemo and feel exactly the same as you did that morning.
It takes a few days to start feeling tired/weak.
Hang in there

Not at all @abkbjbjb
My kids are the same ages as yours. They were a big worry but tbh they adapted quite well. I prepared them well by saying there will be sleepy head days for Mum but the drs are happy with sleepy head days, that's what they expect.
We relied/ are relying heavily on TV and quick teas, and I dont feel a bit guilty.

As you say, it's a good idea to save your energy for hometime/teatime/ homework time, as much of that as possible and then let the evening pass as simply and stress free as possible.

Lockdown was quite good actually, no parties or playdates to try and manage. Mine were already used to the quiet life.

And of course, there will be plenty times when you feel quite well and energetic, even normal. Take them when they come, and for the others this time of year is great for snuggling in the warm watching a Christmas film.

I lost my hair, my daughter was quite upset. I had explained it would happen so we looked online and she picked a couple of cheap (awful looking!!) scarves which i wear round the house. It helped her a bit, i think, and they don't notice my head at all more .

Also, if you enjoy a drink, have the odd one when you're able. It's not exactly the vitamin and wheatgrass advice you were after but you will want to enjoy things too!

Other things I forgot to mention which I found useful. Get yourself a child's soft toothbrush and mild toothpaste.

And rinse your mouth regularly with water with a spoon of bicarb in it. Disgusting. But great for your oral health. (I might be a bit obsessed on this matter)

Make things easy for yourself for the next few months, say yes or no to anything as you genuinely feel it. No guilt. Just get through the days and grab what smiles you can x

@M0rT respectfully, you are only describing your own experience. It can be very much like it is in the films. We don’t all have weeks feeling normal. And we don’t all recover from chemotherapy.

I wish someone had prepared me for the unremitting misery of chemotherapy. It’s about as close to living death as is possible for a great many of us. And I find it quite odd that anyone can speak in such an all encompassing way. It most certainly can be misery all the time and I wish I’d know that can be the case.

I was sick every hour of every day for three months straight. Even on powerful cocktails of anti-emetics. I still can’t walk over a year later, from nerve damage to my feet.

@Summerdayshaze I am really sorry that you had that experience of chemotherapy.
I was in no way trying to minimise what you or others who had bad side effects went through.
But if you have to have chemotherapy there is no point on dwelling on the possibly horrible side effects as it's not a choice.
It's not like giving experiences on elective health care, chemo has to be got through and expecting to get the worst side effects and being anxious the whole time won't protect anyone from them.

@Abkbjbjb have you looked at the cancer thread in general health? Lots of people there going through chemo / breast cancer who may be able to give helpful advice.

And I’m with @M0rT. My chemo has been manageable and whilst it may be a much more tolerable regime that you underwent @Summerdayshaze, I do not understand why anyone would choose to post online as you have, to a stranger, who has presumably only just been diagnosed and is having to start chemo. I am yet to meet anyone who thought chemo would be pleasant, but talk of “unrelenting misery” and “living death” strikes me as extremely unhelpful.

@Starmer I found it soul destroying to the point of almost giving in and discharging myself because I felt like a freak for the unhelpfulness of passing of one’s experience as axiomatic.

I was told I’d get good weeks and it’s not like in films too. I felt so much worse than if I’d just got all the possibilities, good and bad, covered.

I’d have been helped if prepared for the hell possibility too.

I feel like a failure because I wasn’t prepared.

I chose to post as I did, because I wish to god that someone had posted that way to me.

@Abkbjbjb i guess you have started chemo and I hope all is going well. I also have BC but now have only 3 sessions left (out of 16!) so I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and you will too!

I am not going to say it’s easy but keep hydrated and go for a daily walk if you can. I’m not in the U.K. and here we are given a diet plan to follow (including excluding sugar!). I’m on similar supplements too (plus a probiotic) as recommended by my oncologist.

@Summerdayshaze "I felt like a freak for the unhelpfulness of passing of one’s experience as axiomatic." But you've done exactly that, unlike anyone else on this thread.

We will have to agree to disagree. It seems to me very different to talk to a friend who is going through chemo about your experience, compared to telling a complete stranger that it is "living death", especially when they have just found out their diagnosis and are no doubt experiencing all kinds of emotions.

I hope it is going ok for you @Abkbjbjb.

@Starmer I could only find information which was super positive. I’d be treated with great modern medicine for the nausea, I might have some fatigue. Literally the worst thing would be my hair falling out.

It’s not like it is in the films is absolutely axiomatic. I offered an honest perspective of how it CAN be.

Not to frighten. But to know it’s ok if you do find it to be unremitting and “canonical”. I daren’t go on the cancer thread because I feel like a wuss and a failure. The cisplatin chemo damaged my hands and feet so badly with neuropathy that they might have to be amputated. I vomited so much I didn’t eat a single item of food for months. Wheelchair bound.

Where do I go where I’m not told that modern medicine means chemo is not that bad these days. I feel like chemo gave me PTSD. I am lost and it’s only my children who keep me alive.

I don’t want anyone else to feel this weak and incapable.

Chemo is living death. It’s poisoning you to bring you back.

I wish you so much future good health and long life OP. XXX