Hi there, am pleased that finally cycle 2 was done today, funny what you are chuffed with when we are on this journey.
have been advised to follow clean diet, and my blood results from first lot of fec75, neutrophils were very low and didnt come up on their own.
washed fruit and veg, no live yoghurt, be careful with leftovers, ready meals, bagged salads,
does anyone know anything else? and do you follow it for the 3 weeks?
/thanks everyone
anne
Wish I could help, but never had to do this ? Hopefully now I have ‘bumped’ your post you will get some more helpful answers xx
Best wishes for the rest of your treatment
Hi, I was told to wash all veg, fruit and meat. To avoid pâté , soft cheese and unpasturised foods (pregnancy diet) to avoid takeaways and buffet food, and I was told to follow this until the end of treatment. Although I do sneak some pâté the week I’m due chemo as I know blood cell should be high.
hope this was useful x
I was told the same as tosca and also seafood & cured meats (serrano ham, chorizo etc).
I’ve just finished my chemo and in a couple of weeks I am planning on having all the foods! I cannot wait to eat halloumi, prawns & serrano ham 
x
Hi
I’m the same as nanabarb…wasn’t told anything re diet whilst on chemo but bumping to get you some more replies…
The reason for a ‘clean’ diet i.e. similar to what others have already described is to reduce the risk of infection when white bloods cells are low, particularly during the ‘nadir’ period - approx days 7 to 14 depending on type of chemo. My Onc told me that we are more at risk from ourselves i.e. tummy upset, cuts or burns than from others e.g. colds etc. Apart from the GCSF injections given to some there is nothing you can do, as far as I am aware, to boost your white bloods cells. I was hospitalised after TAX1 with low neutrophils 0.7 with an unknown infection! After intravenous antibiotics and an extra GCSF jab they shot up to 20 in two days! Good luck with the rest of your chemo…my last one was 4 months ago and apart from a couple of minor niggling side effects, it is a dim and distant memory take care xo
Most of it is just generally common sense… Eg washing fruit and veg. You want to minimise risk of things that will cause an infection so things like seafood, pate, live yoghurt, unpasturised foods… Pretty much the same as you would eat when pregnant.
if your eating out make sure its from reputable places and not somewhere your not familiar with… They said to me not to eat take aways… But tbh i couldnt have gotten through chemo with out my chicken tikka pasanda! So i just chose places i knew werent health hazards and made sure the food was piping hot.
i had funny taste with first chemo so things didnt always taste the same as they used to do and with second kind i got extremely sore mouth with thrush and ulcers so stuck to pretty bland diet… But generally ate what actually tasted good to me.
never had any problems… Even though my neuts were low on epi-cmf they werent low enough for treatment to be delayed and wasnt hospitalised… With carbo/tax i had neulasta GCSF injections and my neuts were very good all though treatment even when i felt crap lol
take care
lulu x
that was all great advice i have also needed the g csf? injections so that should improve things, this is only 2 cycles so am being good with washing everything.
thank you everyone xxx
Hi Anne. Same happened to me last Tuesday. Neutrophils very low and booster injections given for 3 consecutive days after. Wasn’t told anything about my diet but was wondering if vitamins may help? Not had a chance to speak with my oncologist yet to ask but seen as my diet is so poor at the moment (pickled onion monster munch my craving of choice) as I have such little appetite, maybe vitamin supplements can help? I really don’t want to continue with the injections as this is a recurrence for me and 3 years ago the injections gave me horrendous bone pwhen’s nd was the difference between me tolerating chemo and feeling like crap!
hi /suzybrill, as we have said before we are all different, I wasnt told about pate, cured hams etc like the above. When I first met the chemo team the nurses said supplements wouldnt make much difference. I keep getting told to do manuka honey but its getting it down! I did look up any foods that were good and that might help you, Salmon and oranges!!
Sorry about the injections, I had the bone pain, what is pwhen nd?? but this time I got 5 injections and didnt get any symptoms. i was told to do them before bed though??
hope that helps, I had a cold this week and cant really be bothered with eating.i do have basic smoothies though so some vitamins are getting in.
lots of love
anne x
Not my post, but I think pwhen is a typo for ‘bone pain and’
Hi I ended up in hospital after my first lot of tax…neutraphils were 0.1 with injection, spent the whole of the Easter break in hospital. After that I had the injections for 7days. I did try to make sure, as the other posters have said, a heathly pregnancy style diet, I also ate lots of dark green veg, liver and onions and anything else I could find with a high iron content. Not sure if it helped or if it was just down to the injections, but managed to stay out of the hospital.
I have had to have neulasta injections with each chemo, and was still neutropenic a week into the first treatment although bloods were good enough to continue treatment by day 20, and start TAX today so anticipate having to continue with them until I finish in January. I had bone pain after the first one, but no problems with it since then. I was given no information about what I could and couldn’t eat. Looked into the neutropenic diet, but I found a study which just said to use your common sense regarding food hygiene as there was no difference in outcome between those who stuck rigidly to the diet and those who just took reasonable precautions. I have eaten what I fancied, including yoghurt and three soft-boiled eggs (from my own hens, which have been salmonella vaccinated) and have had no problems.