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July 14, 2006
- Day 3 - Week 15 - Tip Top Tips For Dealing With
Chemo
When sick everyone offers
advice. Each one of us possesses the secret remedy
for something that ails us, and we are eager to
share our information. Vitamin C cleanse for a
cold to trips to the jungles of Brazil for a
medicinal root extract have all been offered me
through the years, and now I am especially
vulnerable to potent elixirs that will make me feel
better. I am always looking for a hot tip and here
are a few that can be passed along to someone you
know who is fighting the good fight with cancer.
Everyone feels the effects of
the flu differently, yet we all can identify with
that general feeling of not wanting to get out from
under the pillow because our body aches all over.
Chemo therapy makes people feel achy all over, but
too few of us know the antidotes associated with
combating the effects of chemical therapy our
treatments.
Many of my friends have
encouraged me to go the holistic route. Acupuncture
to exercise and marijuana to goji juice have been
offered as a way to combat the side effects of chemo
therapy. One friend spent an hour with me on the
phone outlining experimental treatments for cancer
so as to avoid chemo therapy all together. I am
slowly adopting some of the principles of that
philosophical mindset, and I am also changing
behavior to mitigate the deleterious effects of
shooting bags of chemicals into my body over an
eight month period.
Here are some of the presenting
problems I have encountered since I began chemo on
April 5th, 2006.
For fat legs, and if you have
been reading you are aware that this has been one of
my primary un-intended consequences of the
treatments; try this remedy: elevate the legs during
the day and take a mild diuretic every two days.
Dry mouth syndrome comes and
goes, but the key for me has been to ingest both
food and liquids at a moderate temperature. Drinks
too cold and foods too hot send my body reeling in
the form of heart palpitations. Nothing like a luke-warm
beer on a hot day – well, I’m not supposed to drink
alcohol so I don’t have to worry about that, but
warm iced green tea leaves something to be desired
as well.
Nausea and stomach problems are
common with chemo and I have avoided both by
avoiding greasy, fatty foods, strong spices,
caffeine, and diet sodas. I eat smaller amounts of
food more frequently. I can be seen snacking
frequently and many nutrition specialists insist
that their clients eat 6-7 small meals a day rather
than 3 large ones, or in the case of many people one
really large meal at the wrong time – dinner!
Actually, the opposite of
diarrhea, which is a common side effect of chemo,
has been my problem. What to do about the small c –
cancer being the Big C, constipation being the
little c? The remedies for the little c are
daunting, to say the least. Try drinking 8 glasses
of water a day every day.
You feel like you will float
away or spend an inordinate amount of time in the
porcelain closet; especially if you are a male and
more especially if you are a male with an enlarged
prostate gland. I apologize for all this personal
body stuff, but this is where the rubber meets the
road in cancer patients. My grandfather used to
drink a small glass of prune juice every day of his
adult life. Now I know why. Exercises and diet are
crucial when on the road to regularity. Cancer
makes it difficult to remain regular.
The R to R (road to regularity)
is a constant battle when you are injected with
chemicals every 25 days for eight months, but after
the fourth round now I am getting a handle on this
debilitation.
This is enough for now. The
bottom line, like everything else in life, can be
distilled down to simple thoughts – the best tip of
all in staying ahead of the game, whether fighting
cancer or not, is good nutrition and adequate
hydration – period!
Back to Week 15 |
