Food. Required to live yet can be the bane of the cancer patient. There are four things that need to be discussed in relation to chemotherapy; nausea, pain, appetite, and taste change. As seen in the last post, many chemo drugs cause nausea or appetite issues so we shall start there.
“Nausea is a sensation of unease and discomfort in the upper stomach with an involuntary urge to vomit. It may precede vomiting, but a person can have nausea without vomiting. When prolonged, it is a debilitating symptom.” From the wiki. Chemo does something to irritate the stomach and intestines to cause this. There are meds to help stop it, some are very strong and will paralyze the nerves in the stomach so you can’t feel it. The nausea was worse for me on the days of and immediately after chemo, but it would last for the whole two weeks between cycles and would then get worse upon next treatment. It will change what you can or are willing to eat, for me greasy foods calmed my stomach so I ate greasy meats and avoided carbs. You may not know what will make nausea worse until you eat it or smell it, and then you can start puking. A friend came over after my first treatment when I wanted to die from the nausea and he made me some chicken noodle soup, which I immediately gagged on and started heaving. I wound up not eating for the day or two after chemo, at least no more than a few bites at a time, and one week it caused me to lose 15 pounds in one week. And this was one about 8 anti-nausea medications some of which were given through IV.
Next to this is appetite. Being sick will make you want to eat less and if eating makes you sick, just imagine. The hard part is food is required to keep the body as healthy as possible while dealing with the poison. The nausea may have no impact on appetite or the meds might change how or when you feel hungry. I kept an appetite, at least on non-chemo days, and could force myself to get some calories down. Others are not so fortunate and I suggest finding a cookbook if you or someone you know has trouble wanting to eat. The cancer cookbooks are great (I got one just in case) and cover how to get extra fiber or protein or dairy or just foods really high in calories or maybe mouth sores make it hard to have solid food so liquids and smoothies will be had. Nutrition must be maintained or it can jeopardize treatment or cause hospitalization. Chemo tears down the body and food builds it back up.
Another thing that might make eating hard is pain. I had none of this but have talked to several people that have. Mouth sores seem to be the most common but others may push in the intestines and hit nerves or the tumor and cause physical pain which can be quite excruciating. I do not have much experience on this one so seek help online or talk to your doctor.
And finally taste changes. This one sucks just as bad as nausea. Basically stuff you used to love you may hate and stuff you used to hate may be your new favorite food. I have had this after both chemo and major stomach surgery. This last time I have started to love greasy foods which used to taste horrible and are now kinda sweet and juicy. Taco Bell used to be one of my favorite places to eat due to taste and fun memories with family, now its all so bland while I adore burgers which used to be very meh. None of this you will know, I attributed it to an “off day” or “I am still recovering” but at one point I had to admit I just don’t care as much for it. Thankfully I still love pasta, that would have killed me with my Italian heritage.
Nausea can play a role in taste changes, if a food you had during chemo made you sick than odds are you will never want to touch it again, its psychological unlike the previous taste change which was physiological. I got sick off a bag of baked lays; it caused me to gag for some reason in the clinic and now just that shade of lays yellow makes me want to puke.
Probably one of the weirder ones in cravings. It is like being pregnant; you just want certain foods and want them badly to the point that’s all you can think about. Some days I would have killed for ribs or ice cream. This will either get a “I so relate” or a “what the fuck” from other cancer patients and again, nausea and loss of appetite are issues still.
Cancer is Bullshit 