My wife is about to start radiotherapy for a rectal tumor. She is to be given a chemotherapy tablet before and after each treatment. The tablet contains lactose and she is lactose-intolerant. The alternative is chemo IV infusion. Even the medication she was given to prepare for an endoscopy contained lactose. Has anyone had any experience with this? Why all the lactose? This is not trivial, she will be doubled up in pain if she has lactose. She wants to avoid the infusion. Any thoughts or advice?
Hi Hermless
That sounds really difficult as you are probably well aware most tablets contain lactose as it is used as a filler to make tablets easier to handle.
My wife certainly took a number of tablets for the likes to anti-sickness with her traatment but all her actual chemotherapy was via IV. Some of those were really quite quick and not too difficult even though sometimes finding a vein seemed to be something of a challenge.
Hope you find an answer that works for you, I wonder if it might be worth speaking to one of our nurses via the helpline to see if they had any suggestions - 0808 808 0000 open 8am to 8pm 7 days a week.
<<hugs>>
Steve
