How to protect your body when you have chemo ?

( sorry for my bad english...)

my mom was diagnosed with uterine cancer stage 3b ( T3b , N0 , MX ) and she will have her first chemo this sunday , I'm very worry about her immune system and body .

Please give me some advice about food you eat and medice you use to protect your body when you have chemo , I'm very grateful  for your helps

Thank you .

  • Hi Peipei,

    Sorry to read about your Mum, it must be very worrying for you.

    The best advice I was given before I went onto chemo was to eat whatever I could manage (healthy stuff if possible, but chocolate and cake if I couldn't manage anything else) and avoid crowds of people or anyone with a cold, flu or something infectious.

    Apart from that keeping your immune system in shape is just the same as for anyone else - fruit, vegetables, plenty of clean fresh water and a good balance of carbohydrates, roughage and protein. I found at one stage that all I could keep down were fruit smoothies and homemade powershakes made with full cream milk, bananas, peanut butter, non-citrus fruit etc.

    Good luck!
    Dave

    ps - there's nothing wrong with your English ;-) 

  • Thank you for your advice

    I search on internet and many sites said you should avoid dairy and sugar ( any kind of sugar , even fructose ) , is that right ?

    My mom is using lemongrass tea now but I think I should ask doctor because I hear lemongrass can affect chemo drugs.

    May I ask how many chemo rounds you had ? I don't know why most of people have 4-6 rounds ( even stage 1 ) but my mom only have 3 , I don't know if it a good sign or not...

  • There is an awful lot of bad advice on the Internet - especially about sugar. Too much sugar is bad for you because it makes you fat and rots your teeth but there is no evidence that it "feeds" cancer cells any more than it feeds normal cells. I followed my Oncologist's advice which was simply to eat whatever I could manage to keep down.

    I had four rounds of chemo, which worried me as I knew people who had six or more. My Oncologist told me that research showed that sometimes better results came from a lower number of rounds because the bodies immune system can be damaged if you have more than enough chemo. Talk to your Mum's oncologist if you have any concerns.

    Best wishes
    Dave