Chemo & Appetite

[Kerri Gottlieb]

Gloria,

I am glad your dad is getting through the chemo ok. We did the same thing as many others, brought DVDs, music, books, etc. Mom would sleep a lot of the time or just watch Cable TV in her little room.

I definitely think it is IMPERATIVE to make sure he doesn't lose more weight. It seems to keep them stronger and more able to fight. Mom also got sick of Ensure, so we switched to Boost.

Also once or twice a day we make her a shake with Milk, Ice Cream, Ice, Vanilla extract and a LOT of Hershey's chocolate syrup. My Dad buys either that or Bosco LOL And he buys 4 at a time now. We also put in ground up Apricot Seeds and her supplements.

Another reason for the shake was because after like 3 months of chemo Mom couldn't handle swallowing all the supplements we had her on. I really think the supplements (we got them from Ernie's story initially) really made a difference.

But it's like 20 pills a day so we grind the tablets in coffee grinder (we got the coffee grinder because we heard apricot seeds help and they have to be grinded) and open up the capsules. Then we add them all to the shake. This way Mom is getting the supplements and she hasn't lost any weight.

And for a few months there, she had NO appetite and I was the only one who could get her to eat. Because I would get a small plate and put like 3 green beans, a big spoonful of potatoes and a few bites of chicken. That way she didn't feel overwhelmed by the food.

And applesauce, yogurt, little cup of fruit. Anything he likes just a tiny bit so he'll eat. Hope this helps a little.

This website and message board gave my family and I hope when we thought there was none. They are such an amazing group of people and I cannot imagine what we would've done without them. You can actually come here and say see, this person has lived 1,2,3, even 5 and 10 years with late stage Lung Cancer. It is NOT a death sentence.

Keep us updated on your Dad. You all are in my thoughts and prayers.

Kerri

[RandyW]

Losing weight is BAd it is called cachexia and it is almost impossible to reverse this process!!!! It is imperative that you exhaust adn keep trying everything possible. Right now there is not much that vcan be done for cachexia. If you want to see my findings , do a search for cacexia in New tratment forums!!!!!