[DapperButch]

Hello, folks!

Originally Posted by JustJo

Her weight has dropped a little since leaving the hospital, and she struggles to eat and drink at all. Some days better than others...but too frequently I hear that she managed half a carton of yogurt for the day. She was eating better in the hospital, even though she complained about the quality of the food.


Okay, so I feel compelled to give my "dairy speech" here. I hope no one minds (Debby I see you eat yogurt too), but it will gnaw at me if I don't share this information. And this speech is for everyone, not just for those currently fighting cancer and cancer survivors

My understanding is that milk protein is 80% casein, which accelerates the growth of tumors and metastatis. The reality is that even those who have never had cancer have cancer cells in their body. Obviously, those of us who have had cancer probably have more cancer cells/mutated cells in our body than non survivors, so we really need to watch this.

One thing we can do to protect ourselves from getting cancer again is to eat things that either keep mutated cells from multiplying or eat things that actually can reduce growth of any tumors.

Avoiding dairy is one of those things.

As an aside, the 20% protein that is left in the milk is whey protein. Which just happens to inhibit cancer growth.

Jo, if your mom is looking for calories that are easy to eat, suggest she drink whey isolate protein drinks and get away from yogurt altogether. And everyone else consider a life without dairy/pass on dairy when you can.

/sermon


She's 2/3 of the way through her chemo...and is now describing it as a race....can she eat and drink enough when she's sick and exhausted and everything tastes like metal to be strong enough to get through it? She has the expectation that, once the chemo is over, she will be able to eat and drink and have no trouble. According to the doctor, that may not be the case...but I'm glad she believes that. It can't hurt.

I saw my life as being one week race and one week off from race when it came to eating (chemo was on one week, off one week).

I took advantage of desiring or just not minding eating during the week I was NOT on chemo and then let myself slide on the off weeks. That was at first. The last couple of months I had mouth sores on the off weeks, so it was really hard. The weeks that I didn't have the mouth sores and could actually eat I felt sick, so I really had to force myself to eat. There were times I couldn't even talk the mouth sores were so bad. Overall though, mostly due to being younger, I didn't have weight loss issues with my chemo.

I know she's happier to be out of the hospital and at her own house, but I'm also worried about the feeling she frequently describes....that she now understands how people long ago just took to their beds, turned their face to the wall, refused to eat or drink, and died. She says she feels like that herself most days.

It's hard to hear.

I can imagine how hard that must be to hear. I can also remember feeling something very similar. I remember being very impressed that there are people out there who have chronic, long term debilitating illnesses and choose to remain alive. That whole way of thinking feel so removed now.

------------------