Cross posting here. Hope you are all doing well. This question is for anyone who has finished chemo a while ago and had GI issues. (Sorry for the long post- in summary, my question is, does this get better by itself? And did you go to GP or oncologist/breast nurses for help? I feel a bit cut loose now that main treatment is done.)
I had my last chemo session (Abraxane) about two months ago, and finished 5 days of radio about a week ago. Very happy about taste returning, and appetite slowly. Especially enjoying coffee again.
Chemo really messed up my GI tract, talking with a friend also going treatment, we agreed it was like having molten lava go through your system! During chemo I didn’t want to eat & was limited to cucumber, cottage cheese & melon. Took lots of anti sickness meds which stopped me going. I was pretty healthy before, being a vegetarian with lots of fruit & veg and fibre in my diet, had never had issues with digestion. Though I can go to the loo now, it now feels like I have a tight band around my upper stomach, and pressure is worse after eating. I was given Omeprazole by the oncologist, which helps a bit, but I don’t want to be on this long term as I understand long term use of proton pump inhibitors can lead to fractures and am about to start Letrozole with increased risk of osteoporosis.
I want to understand this, and prevent it, rather than just start taking another drug with side effects. I’m not sure who to approach about this - the GP has said ’contact your hospital team’ and the breast nurses say ’contact your GP first’!