What to do / eat after chemo and surgery

[babeblue94]

My mom had a partial hysterectomy on the 13th of March, they could not remove everything right now because the cancer attached itself to the colon and rectum.  She came home Tuesday the 17th and was in emergency on the 20th with a partial bowel obstruction and has been in the hospital since.  She had her first round of chemo today and is finally on solid foods.  They said she may be able to come home tomorrow.

Her abdomen is really swollen and Im assuming it is because of the fluid build up that this type of cancer causes.  When she lays down and talks, she gets out of breath.  Is this normal and should we insist that it be drained before she comes home?  If it isnt drained what could happen?

Also, her stomach is really sensitive and Im wondering what she should / should not eat when she comes home?

Im also afraid of infection, is it ok to clean the house with lysol products to disinfect?

Please help answer my questions

Shari

[babeblue94]

Thank you for the information and it is helpful to know that someone else has experienced what my mom is going through (and im also sorry you had to go through this).  She has been sick since I brought her home from the hospital friday.  They said they didnt want to drain the fluid unless it was extremely necessary because they were afraid of infection.  She has been vomiting and diarhea as well.  Since she isnt getting much fluids and nutrition through what she is eating and drinking, we called the chemo nurse.  She suggested that my mom come in tomorrow as an out patient and they will take blood and give her IV fluids - hoping she feels better after that.  They said this is normal.  But for us it isnt and we are always concerned.

With her intestines so sensitive, I read to stay away from dairy, I found a chocolate rice drink that we are hoping to make a smoothing or something out of - hopefully she can tolerate it and it tastes ok.  Nothing she eats tastes good, she is eating with plastic ware because the silverware makes things taste funny (which I read about).  So many things to learn and every day and sometimes every hour is different.  

The unfortunate thing is that once the chemo starts working she will be going for the surgery again and this time a lot weaker than before because of the chemo treatments in her system.  

I have a great family and we are all pitching in to help take care of her so no one gets burned out.  I try to see her everyday but I know she needs her rest so I dont like to call and bother her, maybe just stop by for an hour or so.

It all still seems so surreal to me at times and I cant believe this is happening.  I think about how I want my mom back, happy and not sick and I pray all the time to give us strength to get through all of this especially my mom.  

Thanks again for all of your advice - it REALLY helps to talk to those that have had similar experiences.

Shari

[Thumblaw]

anyone ever have taxol maintainence chemo the oncologist has recomended that my fiance take this treatment but i can't find any evidence that it might help we are in our late twenties and want to have a normal life.  How does this once a month taxol chemo affect that?  She was diagnosed in 2006 full round of taxol/ cisplatnim.  In 2008 it had reoccured just completed 5 rounds of gymcitibeam/carboplatnim.  Anyone else with ovarian cancer ever have this maintenence chemo?

[onthemendmomma]

Hi-

First off I am so sorry you and your family are facing all this.

I was diagnosed back in October and although every case is different I think I have a pretty good idea of what you/she must be going through since it was  being backed up fluid that got me diagnosed. Even after my operation I had a jp tube (a tube coming out of my stomach) to help the fluid be released. It was ALOT and very scary since prior to all of this I was a healthy person. The fluid also backed up so much that it pushed up into my lungs and I had a plurex cath. (which is basically a thin tube coming out of your chest) that had to be drained every day. I also had to be on oxygen.

Nutrition is so hard b/c the fluid (and the trauma) makes you not want to eat...then the chemo makes you sick when you do. I think "Ensure" is **** and think you are better off making your own yougurt shake w/ fruit for her if she can stomach it. For a long time I couldn't stomach anything because even water tasted "off" so I drank seltzer water and had a few thing I could tolerate. "Naked" brand juices makes a watermelon juice that I tolerated and for some reason plain yougurt with salt and toast were all tolerable. But I worked really hard with a pain control doctor and got on 3 different kinds of anti-nausea medications b/c I had NO appitite and constant nausea without them.

I had a bunch of other complications too including a bowel obstruction. After that what my docs finally settled on was giving me colace and miralax daily and senalax if the other two arent working. Now I'm actually taking cod liver oil (2tsps a day) for other reasons and it has the secondary benefit of helping with my digestion as well. Obviously, I wouldn't do anything w/o running it by the doctors.

Now my operation was a full and complete debulking and considered "optimal" and they told me that the chemo would help w/ the fluid too...which it did....but...the fluid hung on much longer than I expected. I got rid of the jp tube pretty quickly (the visiting nurse said that it looked like I had a baby in terms of how much the swelling went down)  and the draining of my lung went way down but I just got rid of the plurex tube literally YESTERDAY!!!

All that being said things got better little by little and I was able to do more and more and feel better even though I wasn't "back to normal".

In terms of a long term strategy and also finding some hope I was just turned onto a book called "Anti-Cancer" A new way of life by David Serrvan Schreiber and it has food tips for the long term. I love it. All the best to your mom and you.

Christina

[babeblue94]

My mom was throwing up yesterday and today she has nonstop diahrea.  She is eating very minmal throughout the day, but she isnt drinking a lot - we are worried about her becoming dehydrated.  Her temperature right now is 99.7.

Did you experience any of this when you were sick?

Thanks
Shari

[cath81]

Is the fluid making your mum very uncomfortable and causing her pain? If so, u might want to ask the dr for advice on whether it shld be drained before ur mum goes home.

Food-wise, chemo centres normally have educational booklets to give such advice. u cld request for one, or ask to see the nutrionist like pam said.  

[nyc lady]

Be certain to ask the doctor, nurse and everybody else associated with your mother's care these questions.  Ask to speak with a nutrionist.  

Hopefully the chemo will help with the fluid build up.

It is fine to clean the house with lysol, if it will make you happier.  There are probably more germs in the hospital then in your house.

Good luck and keep us advised.

Pam