Maintaining a healthy diet can be a real challenge whilst undergoing chemotherapy. Side effects such as nausea and mucocitis (sore mouth) can make eating very difficult.
There are guidelines for following a neutropenic diet, but does anyone have any tips that helped them manage their nausea during treatment?
Was nausea an issue for you?
Re nausea I mostly listened to my body, avoided rich/spicy food, I was also very sensitive to certain smells which could trigger sickness. People say ginger, peppermint etc but I felt chemo sickness was a little beyond those remedies. Even anti sickness pills didn’t always get time to soak in before I vomited them out sometimes. I had a ‘line’ in and had anti sickness ‘pushed’ directly into my blood stream - for me the most effective way. It’s different for everyone and different chemo drugs have different effects! Remember it doesn’t last forever! 😉
Re mucocitis. Yup. I had TBI (total body irradiation) as part of my treatment protocol and this happened after that. For me it was really nasty but, again it’s not the same for everyone. I just battled through it a day at a time, knowing my body needed nutrients to survive and get through it. Think high calorie / nutritional value food (less food required that way!), something you ‘fancy’. A dietitian (or named nurse) can help to make suggestions if you’re not sure. there are also supplements (or fortisip) but I struggled to tolerate them too. I found a prescription product called Gelclaire made eating/drinking things slightly more tolerable for me (it was also disgusting but took the edge off things a bit)!
It doesn’t last forever.... one day at a time!
