Quick intro

Hi Cariad62 welcome to the group from me. Unfortunately, I can't offer any food advice for a vegan diet, during treatment, hopefully someone will be able to help with that. Once you have your treatment plan, you will feel a lot better about things. Any questions you have, just ask, there are no silly questions, nor are there too many.

Ray.

Hu Cariad Welcome to,our small community grouo ask away any questions. As for vegan I can’t recall anyone recently. This might not be what you want to hear  do know of several vegetarian s long standing over 30 years who had our type if cancer and they just couldn’t get enough protein in recovery no matter how they tried and reverted back to fish and meat. I think you may need a good talk with your dietician regarding vegan. Let us know when you have  your treatment plan and where your cancer is we will all try to help. I bought a nutribullet to make smoothies etc but when I could no longer swallow hard to believe but it can happen  yiu may struggle. Yiu need to know if a peg will be fitted by your hospital or like me a n g tube. Ask your oncologist to be honest re your treatment there’s very few who manage to maintain nutrition orally. On the plus side head and neck cancers do respond extremely well to treatment. It’s brutal but I was 61 fairly fit cyclist and I got through it but needed a feeding tube. 
Hope this  helps 

Hazel 

Hi cariad62, I would say that you being vegan will prob work in your favour as in my experience meat was simply impossible to eat during and immediately after treatment .But make sure as Raz has said speak to specialist about diet, in regards to shakes etc not sure regarding your beliefs re vegan but sure there will be vegan alternatives  All the best for weeks and months ahead

Cariad62 said:

I am a vegan so have concerns around my diet during treatment so I would love to hear from any other vegans.

Hi and welcome. 
Do tie your dietician down straightaway. Most of us find we can’t swallow anything after week four and are put on high calorie high protein liquid food replacements and those are definitely not vegan. 
I have a friend who was vegetarian ( I know being vegan is much more restrictive) and she struggled. She eventually ate meat again. Recovery needs masses of protein. 
Its something to think about if you can suspend your principles while you concentrate on getting cured. 
I am in contact with somebody although not vegan refused to have the replacement drinks and blitzed her own diet. You need an industrial blender like a Vitamix for that. That might work if you can manage to eat orally rather than be fed by tube. Not many of us manage. 
Please stay with us and let us know how you get on. 

Hi Cariad62 

Are you in wales? 

Yes I’m in Swansea so my treatment will be in Singleton Cancer Centre

Hi Cariad

The most important thing for most, if not all, of us was to maintain a healthy BMI during treatment, not easy, I ended up in hospital for 12 day to stabilize my weight...oncology teams were brilliant....

Good luck

Peter

Hi, I am 7 months out from treatment. I am vegan.

Your team is likely to include a dietitian and you will be able to explain your ethical position to them. My team were very supportive. I ended up tube feeding (I still have a tube, but I mainly eat by mouth, now). I did loads of research about vegan tube feeding products. There aren't many options..  Initially, I was using Aymes Actasolve Shake powder. This is OK though a tube but sometimes causes air problems with a feeding pump. I had to let the shake mix settle in the fridge for several hours. I also pump fed little 45ml sachets of ProSource TF plant liquid (Nutrinovo Ltd). This is plant-based protein to support the Actasolve and boost protein levels for healing. In the end, I had to make a slight ethical compromise (the Actasolve was proving too fiddly to get a reliable pump feed - it's fine via a syringe). I switched to Nutrison Soya Liquid (Nutricia). This does contain an extract of sheep wool, so not strictly vegan but Nutricia do describe how well their source flock is kept and Nutrison is often described as vegan. This is much easier to pump feed and I highly recommend it. I decided that I would make this compromise in the same way that I also take medicines which are not vegan (where no vegan alternative exists): I will not be helping non-humans if I am dead!! There is also Fortisip Plant Based (Nutricia - premixed bottled drinks). Personally, I didn't like the taste, but others might. Fortisip is NOT intended for tube feeding. All of the above are available on NHS prescription. If you are able to eat by mouth, then I recommend Huel.

I hope this helps! Feel free to ask me any questions.

Best

Steve

Hello, Not vegan myself, but my vegan daughter came to look after me following my treatment for mouth cancer when I was initially on a liquid diet.

Lots of soups with coconut cream, plenty of veggies, ground nuts, pulses etc. And fruit smoothies with coconut cream, nut butter, sorbet, oat drink etc.

As a vegan you will already know which food groups you need and suitable plant based sources. High calorie is useful post treatment when you will almost certainly have lost weight. When I was on a soft, but not liquid, diet I ate loads of chocolate/coconut based desserts.

I should add that I didn’t have radiotherapy, so although I struggled to eat and swallow initially, my sense of taste was mercifully unaffected.

But I think a vegan post-treatment diet is definitely doable, especially with advice from your dietitian.

Thank you so much for all that information - it does ease my worries somewhat and I shall make a note of your recommendations