I guess we all know that everyone's lenses get cloudy as we age, and it's a race to see if the rate of decay outpaces our lifespans.
Today is a week since my first AC chemo, and I still feel horrible. I honestly don't know that I can handle three more of these treatments. I am out of my element with the constant weakness, queasiness, and general sick, shaky feeling that this gives me. I'm also wondering about permanent long-term damage to my body from this stuff. I want to have a serious talk with my oncologist about proceeding with surgery and radiation instead of further torture from chemo. I understand that the chemotherapy is to help eliminate any cancer cells that may have escaped into the bloodstream or lymph system, which significantly lowers my chances of a recurrence. Such difficult decisions and none of them are pleasant.
Currently the plan is 11 more weeks of the chemo (1 every 3 weeks), then give my body a rest for 4 weeks to build up blood counts, then surgery. So I'm looking at sometime in August for surgery unless there's another delay. After the surgery heals, I'll have radiation treatments. Not sure I'm going to survive this year.
You can and will... but you must have lots of rest and keep strength up. Try milkshakes, or Boost, even if they taste bad you can keep up some sort of calorie. How about spicy hot foods do they taste better?
The only thing that tastes halfway decent is ice cream or a milkshake. I guess the coldness freezes my tastebuds or something.
An ice cream diet! Boy, there is the only advantage I can think of about what you are going through....
If I could do anything to take this cup from your lips, I would be all over it. Are any of the BC forums of help on struggling through these procedures, or are you better off avoiding them? None of us here have "been there." Perhaps that provides its own upside. I assume there is no info available on the benefit already derived if someone stops after Treatment #1, or Treatment #2, Treatment #3, etc. (although others certainly must have done so.) You seem to have a good relationship with your doctors. Hopefully you can trust their advice on whether the incremental benefit from continuing with this is worth the cost it's exacting before you decide your next step. My heart aches for what you are going through. I agree with Gloria regarding drinking Boost or some other easily-digestible/high-nutrient food substitute to keep your strength up, but I'm sure you're already all over this.
If you are going to try drinking something like Boost, you can add a banana and a scoop of protein powder, some ice, and have a healthier drink. By the label, Boost is mostly water, sugar, and canola oil, (plus some vitamins) so nothing there that is going to really benefit and nourish your body. The label says less than 2% is vitamins and minerals, so the first 3 ingredients make up most of the drink. It adds calories, but very little else. Adding some fresh fruit (peaches, blueberries, strawberries, etc) will help a whole lot with the nutrition of the drink, and the ice will turn it into a milkshake for you . You can add things like peanut butter, too, which has both protein and carbs, so it can actually help keep up your muscle strength. https://www.nestlenutritionstore.com/boost-very-high-calorie
I had no idea. I thought of it as a meal substitute. Heck, you could add all that stuff to a milkshake rather than Boost and get more nutrients out of it, plus the calcium to boot. That peanut butter is a also great idea.
Your first sentence made my eyes fill with tears. Thanks so much, John. Yes, I participate on a breast cancer forum. It is at once the most helpful, depressing, and terrifying place on the internet. Unfortunately as is the case with many forums, the people who have beat cancer and gone back to living don't hang around to dispense encouragement. So the biggest percentage of posters are the newly-diagnosed-and-terrified or the Stage IV and exhausting all treatment options groups. A couple of days ago a woman announced her "2 to 3 months at most" sentence and it just broke my heart. My mind doesn't accept that I am dealing with something that is actually going to kill me. Maybe not today, or this year... but it will kill me. I don't know what the odds are at this point of continuing treatment. I'm certain my doctor will urge me to complete the entire treatment plan for my best chances of surviving. Honestly, I try to avoid predictions and survivor statistics because they are terribly depressing and scary. There are actually life expectancy calculators that I avoid at all costs. The cancer I have has an extremely high recurrence rate, so after I'm "done" with treatment it will become a waiting game with terrifying scans every few months. Life as I knew it is over, so there will be a new normal for me. I doubt I will try any "Boost" or any of that stuff. I'm still able to eat whatever I want; it just all tastes horrible.
Beth, I looked online and there are two products that might interest you Akynzeo for nausea, needs a prescription. Enterade is a sugar free medical food that is supposed to help with a host of side effects. Not sure if this needs a prescription. Just thought you might want to check them out.
Thanks Yvonne. I'm not going to drink any of that stuff; I do better eating soup or something. I can still eat but nothing tastes good. I had some chicken soup for dinner and then a vanilla milkshake.
My apologies for the unscheduled pity-party, folks. I'll pull it together before @Lulu Moppet sees me being a wimp.