Hi,
Can anyone give me any advice on the does and donts in the diet when you have extensive liver mets please?
Thankyou
Mel
xx
Hi Mel
I was diagnosed 4 years ago with secs and had 6 mths fec. After treatment I became a veggie and cut out all acid foods did it help ? who knows. I started eating meat again when I went on capecitabine I just could not stop fancying meat. I asked my onc and he said whatever you fancy. Sorry I cant be more help I am sure one of the others will be along soon with plenty of advice.
Love
Hi Mel
Not a lot of hard evidence to state which ‘diet’ helps but my wife and my sister in Australia who has suspect multiple myloma do watch their diet closely, particularly my sister who has taken advice from docs and feeling much better.
Most sounds common sense really but to lessen load on liver and body in general - in a nutshell:
No alchohol at all - balanced diet of fresh foods with emphasis on fruit and vegetables + fish, less red meat, no processed meat including saussages.
Avoid processed foods and ready made stuff, smoked foods including smoked bacon.
Avoid suggary and fatty foods, cakes and the like, fizzy drings loaded with suggar etc.
Avoid over cooking veg. cook to slightly crunchy, raw is good.
She was told dairy products are good in moderation - interesting why?
Olive oil, virgin not blended is good for cooking but don’t overheat oil.
Smoking - obviously. Watch salt and avoid foods with high levels of additives.
My wife finds it easyest to do the above by eating lots of stir frys, which is quick and easy and nice to eat. She does however avoid dairy foods.
She is also a bit of a fruit bat, she will eat a whole pineaple in one sitting if allowed to get away with it.
She does however realy struggle to keep weight on, suppliments diet with high cal. fruit drinks available on prescription.
Regards
dave
spell checker still not working…
hi… when i was first diagnosed with liver sec. i had trouble eating fatty foods especially fried foods…i kept on vomiting so i just consumed less of it…now i just stick to no processed food and organic products…my body weight increased after that…maybe because my chemo is working…because some of the symptoms of liver mets is anorexic…i was anorexic before chemo…i hope this help…
lol
izzati
Hi
Thanks for the advice. My main problem is not keeping the weight on or building up - quite the opposite!
I avoid dairy products because the “C” in my liver over produces calcium…
I dont drink or smoke!
I am on my 4th cycle of Taxotere got 2 more to go… so taste buds are all over the place. So the only things I can really enjoy
are bland plain foods with very little taste… to tell you the truth I am bored with food… I dont want to eat, but with the heavy doses of steriods I munch on toasted fresh bread.
I have seen a dietician who did not really give me any advice except that she does not want me to loose weight whilst on the Chemo…ok…
Anyway sorry for rambling on.
Thankyou Dave for the advice and Izzati.
Hugs
Mel
x
Hi Mel
I’ve tended to go with the thinking of eating what will be good for my immune system as a whole and, in doing that, not over burdening my liver.
I’ve never been one for processed foods, have never smoked and wasn’t a big drinker before. I hardly ever drink now and if I do have one it tends to be a white wine spritzer (with more soda than wine in it). I have a friend though who also has liver mets and she can drink far far more than I do but it might be to do with the size of our tumours?
My oncologist has always said to just be sensible in what you eat - don’t cut things out such as dairy or red meat but just don’t go overboard on them. I don’t eat much dairy products or red meat but, there again, I never have even before this. I became hypercalcymic (sp!) but I’m not sure it had anything to do with the amount of dairy products I consumed because it’s quite low (only have milk with cereal and never have it in coffee etc)
Like you, I’m still on chemo and it is important to keep your immune system as healthy as possible but really difficult to know sometimes what to eat to make it more interesting!
Hi Pinkdove,
I was also suffering from hypercalceamia, but mine was so high I nearly slipped into a coma. Thats how they found my liver mets. My liver is 90% confuumed and according to onc hardly any recognisable liver tissue. BUT my liver is now functioning normally at normal levels and the only medication I am on are water tablets and steriods on a daily basis and the obvious dreaded Taxotere chemo. Had my ct scan result which showed good news but also very confusing news. The good news if the chemo is doing it stuff and my liver is nearly normal size and the mets have shrunk. the confusing factor is that they think that I have scirrhosis??? combined with possible hepititis possibly due to the aneasthic/drugs that have been pumped into me in such a short space… So even though I dont really drink I did enjoy the odd glass of wine or port, but now I have been adviced it is a big no no…
When I asked my onc today about my diet does & donts she really mirrored what most have said, enjoy but be careful and aware!
So next I am waiting for a liver biopsy to find out what is going on…
Thanks again for all your replies.
Hugs
Mel
xx
Mel,
I think I have heard this called pseudo-cirrhosis. The scar tissue from where mets have been killed off by chemo can resemble cirhossis. Hope this is true in your case, and not odd-glass-of-port-cirhossis.
Good luck,
Jenny
Mel999
Your post shows just how marvelous an organ the liver is - it is hard to believe that you had 90% tumour growth and now things are going so well. I too have had several tumours and, after Taxotere and now 3 weekly Herceptin (for about 4 years now) there is nothing to be seen.
I too eat little dairy product and don’t eat meat but I never did (so what does that say as I still got tumours in my liver?!) and I have decided that life goes on and that, as I have always enjoyed a glass of wine, I will continue to do so; my oncologist agrees.
Blondie
Hi Mel
My liver was severely compromised 20 months ago due to the growth of my tumours, so much so that I was told to put my affairs in order as they didn’t think I was going to survive more than a couple of months.
Interesting to read about the cirhosis - I wonder if I’m at risk of that as well due to being on chemo since 2006.
You sound as though you had a pretty awful time when you were hypercalceamic and thank goodness you’ve responded well to taxotere. I wasn’t offered this as an option then because my oncologist said my liver couldn’t have coped with it although things are different now and she said that when and if the Xeloda stops working there are now other options she can look at.
I’m very protective of my liver now! Although not to the extent of being silly because at times if I want to eat something then I will (like cakes, chocolate, although really only Green & Blacks, glass of wine etc) because I think we still have to enjoy ourselves.