Chemo question

Take a variety of things as your taste and appetite may both be affected, especially if it's a long treatment day. You may get bloated with all the bags of fluid which can ruin the appetite. I took different things each time including tubs of rice pudding or (non live) yoghurt, banana,  peanut butter, cornflakes and cold milk, humous and cucumber. I put them in a chilled bag.  There may be a food trolley on the unit that does sandwiches, fruit, yoghurts, crackers and cheese, that type of thing (no hot food though due to the smell). The key is variety, take more than you think you'll need, and make a note of what you enjoyed.

Hi

For my first chemo nausea was the issue. I did not feel like eating much. Things like white toast, crumpets, rice, rice crispies were ok. I split my meals into smaller portions and ate little and often. Ginger biscuits can help. Flat lemonade. Lemon sweets. Taking the anti nausea medication around 30 mins before eating helped. 

For subsequent chemos I found that my taste was affected and things I normally like tasted off. I also had a sore mouth and this put me off eating. If this happens to you they can prescribe a special mouthwash to help. I used complan meal replacements and made fruit smoothies that I sipped on. Mashed potato, jackets, bland and plainer foods. RIch tea biscuits. I found tinned fruit and vegetables were more easily digested. 

I tried to eat my main meal earlier in the day. I stocked up on a few small ready meals- child size portions and had them in the freezer- then if I did fancy something, I had them ready. 

It may be a case to wait and see how you are affected but just have plenty of choice in. For me it was the first week of the cycle where I felt most rough. 

The first couple of days of each cycle I was more hungry possibly due to the steroids. 

I did have a bit of cheese and it did not upset my tummy, but it did taste different. Bananas didn't work for me. I did have greek yoghurt with some fruit as that is something I normally like. I found white sliced bread best for toast as anything more high fibre could affect my tummy. Plain crackers were ok. Also rice pudding. 

I also went off tea. I was ok with weak squash, water with a splash of fruit juice and lemonade. 

Jane

I tended to have relatively normal meals, didn’t find appetite affected. If anything I probably ate more as I had ginger biscuits, cake, and cheddars, which I don’t tend to normally have in the house. The key for me was having something I could just shove in the oven on the days when I didn’t feel up to doing much.

i got home from first chemo at 8pm and had a chicken stir fry cooked by sister in law and loved it after long day.  Whilst having chemo, I would have sandwich, packet of crisps and biscuits from food trolley they brought round for us.

Hi Lenzie, that is very useful information and I will definitey think of a few snacks to take with me on treatment day - you have some good ideas, so thank you.

Thanks for your reply Jane, it is good to hear your experience, although I know it may be different for me. It seems being prepared with a variety of food is key, so I may add one of a number of things to my shopping list and then order more of what works for me after that. It seems a low fibre diet is going to be needed, so I can swap my usual brown for white. I usually eat a lot of high fibre food like pulses, beans and and lots of veg /salad, so I'm guessing I will have to have a rethink. It's tricky as I am veggie, but maybe the Complan might work for me too, to make sure I'm getting a balanced diet.

Thanks Waidh, it's good to hear that you weren't badly affected, so there is hope for me! 

My biggest issue stomach wise was the anti nausea tablets they gave me to use after the first 3 days. Only found out on day 10 or 11 when I was so fed up and phoned the 24 hour number, and they said it could be the tablets. For the other cycles I just used the ones they gave me for first 3 days.

to be fair I probably kept to a fairly low fibre diet, and had no problems with cheese.

make sure you have the boiled lemon sweets they were a godsend for me.