Digestive System Under Pressure

In Blog 4, I updated you on the symptoms I had experienced during the week following my fourth and final EC chemotherapy session. These included nausea and gastrointestinal (GI) disturbance for the first four to five days following treatment.

One week on and I am still making good progress, although things have not been as smooth as I was hoping for!

In addition to nausea and GI disturbance during the first 4-5 days after treatment, the significant side effects I have experienced after this final EC treatment now include:

Side Effect	Timescales	Norm	Management
Mucositis (inflammation of the digestive system)	Started day 50 of chemotherapy regime	According to the NHS, the symptoms of mucositis would “usually begin 7 to 10 days after you start chemotherapy”	Omeprazole Gaviscon Liquorice tea
Mouth Soreness	Started day 74 of chemotherapy regime	According to Cancer Research UK, this symptom can occur “about 5 to 10 days after you start treatment”	Home made salt / bicarbonate of soda mouthwash Bonjela

The side effects of mucositis and mouth soreness would normally be expected to start around one week after the beginning of chemotherapy, suggesting that there may be a cumulative impact of treatment. In which case, whilst these side effects are extremely unpleasant, I am relieved they have only started now.

White Blood Cells Rallying

Chemotherapy can reduce the number of white blood cells in your body, which we all need to fight infection.

In 2014, researchers reporting in the journal Cell Stem Cell (published by Elsevier) reported that “periodic fasting may combat … chemotherapy-induced … changes in immune cell function by replenishing stem cells in the blood”. This means that your white blood cells effectively ‘go to sleep’ during fasting. After you break your fast, the white blood cells wake up with a vengeance and can, in theory, target the cancer cells more aggressively resulting in an improved tumour response to chemotherapy treatment.

So, I was delighted to hear that a blood count report carried out on 25^th August 2015 showed I have a normal white blood cell (4.2×10⁹ /L) and neutrophil count (2.0×10⁹/L).

My first ultrasound scan showed a tumour reduction of about 20% after just two chemotherapy sessions.

Fasting for Taxol

I have now completed all four EC chemotherapy treatments and now have just four Accelerated Taxol treatments ahead, before surgery towards the end of the year and radiotherapy thereafter.

So, next Wednesday I’ll be in full on fast mode again – 350 calories a day for 2 days prior and 4 days after chemotherapy treatment. This time, however, once I have broken fast, I will be trying to keep starchy carbohydrates and sugar to an absolute minimum in an effort to protect my digestive system. Of course, I will report back to you how it is going.

Next time I’m also going to introduce mindfulness as an approach to handling the psychological challenges of cancer.

Thanks for reading. I hope this information is useful to you. Do get in touch if you have experience of fasting for chemo you would like to share!

Della x

Further Reading:

Fasting may protect against immune-related effects of chemotherapy and aging

Disclaimer:

The information contained in this post or any other post on this blog is based on personal experience and should not be viewed in any way as medical or other advice. If you are considering fasting for chemo, please consult your healthcare provider.

Copyright © 2015 Johnson