EC chemo

Hi 

I’ve had 2 cycles of EC so far. 
for me the side effect of sickness have been very much like morning sickness. Sometimes eating made me feel sick other times eating stopped me feeling sick. 

I was told I am more like to put on weight rather than lose it so I have tried to eat well but sometimes when you feel rubbish you just want to eat what you want. 

I think of eating as just bumping up my immune system so I eat things that may help my system recover better. 

I would suggest eating at regular times, I have 2 small children so food is always at the same time and if you don’t really fancy eating just have a little something like soup. 

I hope this helps x 

Thank you for sharing your experience. 
I think that’s good advice , my diet is rubbish and should eat better. 
I haven’t really had much of an appetite since last year, makes sense as then I didn’t know I had this and lost weight, still now I just don’t fancy big meals. 
soup is a great idea of eating but not eating if that makes sense. 

thank you  

Everyone is different but I felt sick for the first week on EC and my appetite was affected. I struggled to eat but forced myself to help all my cells regenerate. It did mean I cut out chocolate and crisps as I couldn't stomach them, which was a good thing. 

I actually vomited the first cycle but that is very unusual these days. They gave me even more anti sickness tablets for the remainder of chemo which helped. But I still felt sick for a week. 

I lost a bit of weight but put that all back on and more with water weight when I had docetaxel! Docetaxel affected my taste much more than EC, so I struggled to find anything that I enjoyed eating, it all tastes yuk. 

Morning, 

is all your treatment done now? If so has your body bounced back? 
my treatment starts in couple weeks, I’ll have six, three weeks apart then radiotherapy. 
I think I’m just more worried about feeling weak. 
thank you for replying

I finished my chemo treatment about three months or so ago. Each week the tiredness lifts a bit more, and I am just pacing myself. I can do most things, but evening activities are still off the schedule. I think that is mostly due to the radiotherapy tiredness taking a month or two to lift. But in another month or so and I can see that will change back to normal too.

I wish I had known in advance that making sure I had small regular meals with a good protein content in order to maintain my strength would help with fatigue during chemo. I knew about exercise being helpful, even if just a daily walk, and trying to eat a good diet when I could would help. I just didn't know about watching the protein content and trying to eat protein at every meal. I lost some weight on chemo and it took until recently for my appetite to return. I tried eating smaller meals 5 or 6 times a day, and had frozen single portions of soups/ stews etc in order to make it easy for myself when I was tired. Sometimes you just have to eat what takes your fancy when you are on chemo and sometimes it can be the same thing over and over. Despite having ideals, in the end you just have to go with the flow a bit! There is nutrition advice available from macmillan and Penny Brohn cancer charity. The short cooking course at my local macmillan centre was fantastic and again something I wish I had been to before chemo.

You will find your own way with chemo. You will get times in your cycle when you need to rest more and times when you feel much more your usual self. It doesn't take long for chemo to become a distant memory! Good luck with all your treatment xxx

Hi

My chemo is on a Wednesday. My appetite is poor until the around the following Monday then gradually gets better. I can’t stomach meat for about a week. I also found swallowing quite difficult and lived on mashed potatoes for a few days. 
The other thing is that I find my eating is much slower. I think it’s to do with less saliva & a dry mouth. Everything just needs a lot more chewing.  The week before chemo I find myself eating everything in sight ! Lol

Thank you all so much. 
You can research everything but your experience is what I’m after. 
thank you for the protein tip and the swallowing info. 
mall helps for me to be prepared. 
thank you for the head up ️

I am on day 5 of my second round of EC. I haven’t found it has changed my appetite by very much, but I think I have been lucky to completely avoid any nausea. I found it best to put small amounts on my plate during the first few days, getting seconds if I felt like it. I get a bit of lower abdominal pain once I have stopped the steroids, and wind can be a bit of a problem. On the first cycle I found most food tasted normal, just a bit of an off edge on things like orange juice. It seemed to return to normal before the end of the cycle. Second time round taste is definitely a bit duller, I hope it’s again only temporary. I am not a snacker and am trying to eat regularly and as normally as possible, also do as much exercise as I can  tiredness hasn’t been much of a problem for me and exercise definitely helps with that.