Hi Eltiks - like you, I had tummy cramps that didn’t lead to anything - gripey really… and not nice!
Eltiks, I had griping and terrible diarrhoea on tax 1, but was fine for the other two. Hope your tummy has settled now.
Jeanette, thanks for sharing your story.
The TAX road train - hee hee. I’ve seen those monsters in Aus and they’re massive. Mind the gap!
“it’s all relative… and individual… BUT we don’t have a choice really eh? so let’s support each other and together we will get through this”
Indeed.
“NONE of it is easy”
So true. We all have a different experience, even on the same drugs and every response is valid. It’s a crap disease and a crap treatment!
Hi EK
Well I am sorry my post upset you, as I said we are all different!
But I do think diet and lifestyle is the key…
Anyway I wish you well and hope that things settle for you soon
xx
Hi all
I finished FEC 5 weeks ago and have had no sickness at all just painful and stiff muscles. Iwould like to know how long it takes for side effects to go please? xxx
Just popped in to say been MUCH better all day… there is hope and hardly any pain today!! Fell asleep though and was late picking kids up from school…only a couple of mins ??? teacher said don’t worry we would have kept hold of them and rung you??? not sure my little boy will forgive me ! ( he is autistic and I MUST be at the gate when they come out…ahem!)
Love to all if you look closely you will see that light shinig at the end of the tunnel!
JX
Veggiebab:
“Hi all
I finished FEC 5 weeks ago and have had no sickness at all just painful and stiff muscles. Iwould like to know how long it takes for side effects to go please”
I don’t know - I didn’t have FEC. This is a tax thread. Maybe you could start a FEC thread so that folk who have had FEC can help you? Guys reading this thread are generally on tax.
HTH
Zippy, you are right, diet does make a difference.
Ek, I did not change my diet until halfway through my chemo, I was crippled and bedridden with Tax and injections, yet a huge diet change meant I was then able to live a relatively normal life. I still felt pretty crap, but not in crippling agony. While everyone does have different se’s, diet can make a huge difference. I had to be well to complete a month’s worth of contract work (I run my own business), if I had not made the changes, I would not have been able to work and would have lost my business
With my diet change I refused the injections also and my WBC count went up to completely normal, the onc could not believe it. Since the diet change (16 months), I have not taken even one painkiller.
We all have different se’s and we all have choices.
Gretchen: "We all have different se’s and we all have choices. "
With respect, changes to one’s diet work for some folk but not for most folk.
If it was as simple as changing one’s diet, the oncologists / doctors / researchers would have latched on to it decades ago and stopped wasting years of work and millions of pounds of money on drugs and research.
I have osteoarthritis in my spine. I am aware that an extremely small %age of folk with this can get ease from a diet change. But most will not. But that doesn’t stop my SiL telling me that “all I need to do it eat (say) Goji berries and I’ll be cured”. Yeah, right. So if all it takes is the latest snake oil diet, then why do millions of folk the world over suffer from OA? (I did try them, BTW, to no avail.)
A woman with secondary BC told me that she had been “cured” by taking cannabis and had out-lived her projected lifespan and urged me to use it because it was a cure for cancer. Another lady in the same room had secondaries and had out-lived her projected lifespan TWICE, she hadn’t had cannabis, but HAD been given chemo and surgery.
Both ladies would have been powerful advocates of the path that they had taken. Doesn’t make either path suitable for anyone else.
I’d be interested, however, to know what your diet was like before you changed it and what it consisted of afterwards. At home, we have always had what most would regard as an extremely healthy diet with low fat and lots of raw veg and fruit. If there is anything else that I could do to help, I will listen. I’m not disputing what your diet may have done for you, I’m just saying that it’s not an instant cure for all.
My diet change was instigated by a need to be able to fullfill work contracts, not to cure cancer.
Here is my original post from a year ago, now I would avoid soya and use oat milk instead. I had been generally pretty healthy, but worn out by dx and chemo, had resorted to just eating what ever I fancied, it was winter so that meant a lot of stodgy carbs.
I believe a non-salt diet is very important. My tongue was so disgusting and coated white, but when I changed diet the mouth issues went. I now eat 90% raw.
This post is not a judgement, but the title asks for tips, and interestingly all the ‘tips’ are about how many painkillers to take. I am simply sharing and have had many pm’s from other ladies thanking me for doing so.
POSTED A YEAR AGO:
I have taken on a really strict liver support/cleansing type diet to help me get through chemo and the difference has been nothing short of incredible. Please. please consider making the change. I brief outline below:
I had 3 FEC, which was horrendous as I had terrible nausea. My first TAX was far worse than I thought it would be with joint pain and depression etc. I had virtually a week in bed and never quite bounced back.
BUT
A week before my second Tax, I wet on a a major liver cleansing diet, cut out all salt, saturated fat, dairy products, red meat, only a tiny bit of organic eggs and chicken, and tons of fruit vege and whole grains and good oils. Drunk 2-3 litres of bottled water a day and had 30-40mns of brisk walking.
I have sailed through this TAX with only a tiny bit of joint pain - after hot showers. I have walked every day and have had NO time in bed (except of course at night!). Most importantly no tears or depression/melancholy and I feel like ‘me’ again. Happy and enthusiastic about life.
Diet is largely ignored unless you go on the internet and search it out, yet the difference even two weeks has made to me is life changingly incredible.
My new regime was triggered by a link on this site to a wonderful website canceractive.com/
It is hard work and at times very boring, I am day 9 of my second tax and have treated myself to small amounts of some processed foods like hummus, organic dark choc and a couple of biscuits in the last few days.
My diet went a bit like
porridge made with half water half soya milk for breakfast
Smoothie mid-morning (mad with soya milk)
Omelette with loads of veg and salad for lunch
brown rice and steamed vege for dinner
Also
soups made with lots of spices - no salt/stock.
stirfrys made with no soy sauce, just lots of fresh ginger and spice for flavour
salads
quinoa
sprouted seed and legumes
Basically NO processed food.
Salt is very difficult to avoid and I did have a few wholemeal pittas (with no e-numbers) for extra carbs. Bread is not good as commercial bread is loaded with e-numbers.
Exercise is also very.very important. I also went for a 2 hour walk over the downs yesterday.
Friends and family are astounded with the huge difference in my personality too, back the the old me.
I hope this helps. It is hard work but worth it!
I think the point was immediate tips for me, I’m on 4/6 treatment now, so only 2 left, I doubt any change in diet will immediately help me. Also, I don’t have the energy for doing all this stuff, I’m whacked right out, the worst of the pain is gone and being treated with Morphine Tabs.
I still have flu like aches pains, banging sinus type headche and with shooting pain across eyes, sore nails, shivers, diahorrea and burning in my throat/mouth, now with a lovely white coating which I think is Oral Thrush, so going to Doctors this afternoon to find out.
It just felt like another one of those silly comments that aren’t useful at the time when you’re literally on your hands and knees, crying in pain!
Someone coming along and saying “why dont you try twirling backwards at midnight in the rain and wafting burning chamomile teabags around your head whilst hoping on one leg”.
Hi El K
Wish I could offer you some practical advice, all I can do is send cyber hugs.
I’ve (literally) just had tax 2. My prob after tax 1 was the steroids - i didn’t sleep fot more tha 2hrs at a time and no more than 5 hrs in every 24 for over a week! My onc has almost halved them this time - with the warning that I may get more tax ses, so I came on here looking for good advice - just in case. I’ve got the paracetamol and brufen ready and my fingers crossed.
I’ve renamed tax taxidermy - it stuffs you!
Hope you feel better soon.
Dx
Gretchen - thanks for elucidating.
That sounds pretty much like the diet that OH and I follow anyway - we are great believers in ‘you are what you eat’ although we are prolly not as strict as you if that list is a daily thing.
I know that some folk stuff a lot of processed rubbish in their mouths, and I also know that at times of stress, only a big wodge of carrot cake will hit the spot!
Kat - I think I had the funny nerve things yesterday; terrible pains in my feet (of all places) and just a light touch of any part of my leg from hip downwards sent shooting pains so bad I could hardly speak. Couldn’t get off the sofa and weight-bear to get the painies. Does that sound like Tax stuff? never had it before.
Stay strong - this crap is finite and will end.
Hi Ninja
Seriously, I ate like this religiously for 2 months, (and I love my cuppa and biscuit - never ate a single biscuit for 2 months).
I didn’t feel completely normal, and was still very tired, but comparatively the difference was enormous. But what most astounded me the most was the speed at which I felt better, only a few days made a difference. AND I didn’t need the injections. WBC went from 0.5 up to 5.5
El K Your last paragraph did make me chuckle!
I know what you mean about wanting an immediate solution. I found Tramadol good for the pains and you’re right they’re nothing like “flu symptoms”. They actually come from the chemo attacking your bone marrow so its a much deeper, more intense pain than any flu could ever give you.
I commend anyone trying an alternative diet and I wish I had the discipline to put it into practice myself but to be honest, as a single parent, sometimes its the most I can do to be bothered to prepare any food at all let alone faff around eating seeds and raw veg. But I’m not denying that it probably does help.
I hope you’re feeling a bit better now El K. Just remember “This too shall pass”
Debs
x
Thanks Buzzy!
Went to doctors - confirmed I have got oral thrush as I suspected, so 14 days of Flucoznole or whatever they call it, and Corsodyl Mouthwash. Said I should start feeling better in a few days, off food now as everything tastes foul and my mouth/throat is burning when I eat. Im eating to stop hunger pangs now and that is it, even then Im forcuing myself.
Akkkkkkk
Update 
Talked to my BCN about how horrific the bone marrow pain was for me and they said they think I had an extreme SE from the injections. So far my bloods have been really good so next time I’m not having the injections and we’ll see what happens naturally, aware I may have to delay chemo for a week if the counts are up enough but so far they’ve been OK.
SHe said there’s no reduce dosage you either have the injections or not.
I’m choosing NOT next time, it was crippling and miserable as sin. I just hope I dont get an infection!
El Katrano, just want to flag up that Jo C on the “starting chemo on 11 March” thread has had a problem that sounds very similar to yours, labour like pains due to a rare interaction between the TAX and the injections and was advised to stop the injections. She wrote about it around pages 51-54 of that thread, or you may want to share your experience with her. she had to get really strong pain killers and got much better once the injections were stopped.
hi el-katrano,
ask your onc not your bcn about the injections, if you had the same as me neuprogen, they can alter the dose, i went from 5 down to 3 up to 4 and back to 5 again!!! problem with me was I was either too low or too high with my white count,
but they can alter the dose, the pain you experienced though of no help to you I know means the jabs are doing the job, lol,
good luck with your next tax,
strength, determination, and a sense of humour is on your side,you will do it
love liz xxx
Hi Liz - It’s not Neutrogen I’m on it’s Flisgram. The BCN said she would def. check with onc, but she’s been doing this 30yrs and has so far been right, she says the injections I have are either you have it or you don’t, you can’t adjust dosage.
I know I can take morphine and keep with the injections, however, it’s just sooooooooooooo horrible being drugged up to hell as well and I’m bad with constipation too with painkillers. My WBCs all through treatment have been excellent.
Either way, I’ll somehow get through all this.
Great thing is, my oral thrush is on its way out and I can TASTE again, nothing tastes bloody disgusting - hoooooooray! Celebrated by going to Frankie and Bennys and having a big fat meal of BBQ Baby Back Ribs, Sweetcorn, Jacket Potato and Coleslaw with a big fat Coke 