Hi there, I am week 2 of dense dose EC chemo for breast cancer. Doing ok but have had heart burn and wind. Think I might I have drinking too much mint tea! Has anyone tried ginger tea or Manuka honey for heartburn and wind. Thanks!
I'm also having EC I have 2nd session next Friday. I bought normal antacid sweets for heartburn and they've helped alot. As far as wind yep first week was awful but my appetite wasn't great either it has settled down now tho.
I had ECP last Summer/Autumn and found the EC the hardest with constant nausea and wind. The only time I didn't feel sick was when I was eating! If it helps I made a list of foods from various internet searches that supposedly help with different conditions.
Water, fibre 25-50g per day, prunes, apples, pears, bananas, coffee, chia, porridge, apple sauce, apple pear juice,
AVOID: Gluten, milk & dairy, red meat, fried or fast food
Diarrhoea:
BRAT Bananas, white Rice, Apple sauce, toast. Oatmeal, bread, boiled potatoes, plain crackers, chicken, fish, smooth peanut butter
AVOID: dairy & milk, apple juice, butter, pork, veal, raw veg, caffeine.
I also found Maynards wine gums very helpful even though I didn't like them before. The first couple of days after chemo I used to eat a boiled egg on ritz crackers. I did also make my own ginger infusion for a while with a touch of lemon but quickly got fed up with that and switched to canned shandy which for some reason didn't taste too bad and seemed to help with the wind contrary to the advice above!
Please do tell your doctors as they can prescribe lots of different things until they find the one that works for you. I tried to stay away from the medicines at first but after the 3rd week I started taking them and felt much better. Maalox plus helped a lot.
At the time I felt really miserable but I got past it and now it's a distant memory. Good luck and best wishes.
Hi Bellelouise My digestion has calmed down lots now (almost end of 2nd week). My 2nd chemo was meant to be this Tuesday but has been put on hold as I got some weird heart palpitations and ended up in A&E with an abnormal ecg. The hospital reminded me that the E in EC is cardio toxic. So I now need to wear a 24 hour tracker before my chemo can be restarted. Anyway experienced this before?
Sorry to hear you had a reaction I didn't know that about the E part. Hopefully with the tracker on everything will be ok and you'll get through 2nd session ok, I have my 2nd session Friday.
This is really interesting. I've just had my first EC, now on day 11. On days 8/9 I ended up in A&E with severe heart palpitations too. My oncologist is reviewing me next week before round 2 on 25 Jan. Did you continue with EC? Did you have palpitations with further rounds? A&E were useless. They didn't call an oncologist in and they were completely unable to make a link between a weird heart episode and chemo drugs.
I had a couple of ecgs, a heart eco and a thyroid blood test. All came back ok and I was given the ok to have the 2nd infusion a week later. The conclusion was it was palpitations/spasms in my gullet. Was prescribed lansaprazole. Think it helped but still got the palpitations during the 2nd week. Did the 4 required EC infusions but ended up in hospital 2 x with Sepsis..... EC is horrible. Lots of women I meet really struggled with it. The good news is that I went on to have 12 weekly paclitaxel infusions with only minor issues. Fingers crossed it goes better for you!
Thank you so much for this. I'm seeing the oncologist on Tuesday and I will mention that all my close female relatives have thyroid problems, although under active rather than overactive. Time will tell how I get on with the next round. I am having exactly the same treatment as you.
Ive just had my 1st round yesterday and have been sitting up in bed with painful acid reflux for the last 3 hours. It's now 5am. I've noted the helpful food list from Silvertaby from a post June last year but would like to hear any tips from you as you are only about 6 weeks ahead of me having he same treatment. Hope its going OK for you
