Hi All,
I have stage 4 Hodgkins Lymphoma cancer and have just completed my second round of BEACOPP escalated, each time I have ended up in the hospital for nearly a week due to bad side effects and being neutropenic and having infections. I am looking at ways to reduce my side effects next time an how my body can build it's self back up again as soon as possible. I have 3 children a 3 year old, 2 year old and newborn so getting out of hospital and home to them is a priority.
I do see that fasting has been tried and tested and COULD have promising results but no large scale scientific trials have been done to really clearly prove it. So I'm really just interested in knowing your personal experience if you have tried this. How long did you fast for, and how did you find the impact.
Also I have chemo on day 1, 2, 3 and 8 of a 21 day cycle, how have you managed with multiple days if you were similar?
Thanks Saphire
Hi Kiwi91 sorry to hear that you have had bumps on the road post treatments but it’s not that unusual….. especially with escalated BEACOPP as it is very strong stuff so your immune system takes a hit often resulting in a long recovery and infections.
I have talked with many people who have tried various approaches including fasting and generally the feed back was it all made no real difference…… each journey can be ever so different but if e very important thing is the body needs fuel and a balanced diet provides the fuel.
The people who have tried fasting found that they just ran out of energy and had to eat to build up their energy levels as recover was taking longer and longer.
The chemo I had for my NHL had me in hospital for 5 nights/6 days on my 2 IV pumps 24/7…… I was eating all the way through, even having hospital food and the unit dietitian was delighted as she said that people who had had the same treatment and who lost their appetite took much longer to recover and were often open to infections…… interestingly I had no infections.
I had to go on to have 2 Allo (donor) SCTs…… I was eating all the way through the 4 weeks in the unit and recovered very quickly (although the graft did not work)
I lost my appetite very quickly during my second Allo and my energy levels plummeted…… I also embed up in the CCU with a heart problem so at the end of the 4 weeks I left the unit in a wheelchair and had to learn to walk.
Let’s see who is looking in to bring their thoughts.
