Distended abdomen

I have the same problem
I've just had my second dose of doxil/cylaex(sp?) but it doesn't seem to have kicked in yet. In the meantime I try to drink protein drinks (whey protein) and full fat yogurt or kefir between meals but I have very little appetite. My husband also makes things like liver pate or salmon pate and I try to eat small amounts of that whenever I can. Also peanut butter, which I hate!
There seems to be little I can do for the bloating except take pain killers. I'm on Fentinyl (sp) patches and exynorm. Even sitting down is uncomfortable as it seems to compress my insides. I spend most of my time lying down because I just can't stand the pain if I sit too long, although I do try to have at least a short walk most days. I'm sorry I can't be more helpful, just hope your chemo starts to work soon. I know how tough it is for you:(

Tina Brown said:

Hello sarahb74
I've tried Caelyx which is the English version of Doxil. How are you doing on it? I am interested because it made me quite ill and I hadto come of it.

I too am most comfortable lying down. When I do sit for meals I have to be upright. I imagine the gentle exercise is good for you. I am just eating small meals as it feels like I have a gastric band on my stomach and I soon feel full.

See my other post regarding my tablets I am taking.

Take care Tina xx

Hi Tina
I don't know whether the doxil is actually working yet. I had my first infusion about 5 weeks ago and they say it's too early to tell. My last CA125 which was taken about 4 weeks after my first infusion showed a drop from 3500 to 3250, not very dramatic. The onc said the drop wasn't necessarily from the chemo but she's "cautiously optimistic". I'm sure that doctors speak for something!

I have been very sick since starting the doxil and have been wearing a syringe driver with anti sickness medication for the past 3 weeks, which means having a nurse visit every day to change the syringe. Before that I was vomitting several times a day. According to the oncs it's not the doxil that making me sick or constantly tired but the cancer which they say is just on the right side of borderline. Not sure if I want to know what that means but am trying (not very well!) to be positive.

I hope you do well with your new treatment and keep everyone posted on your progress

I am new and worried
I have to go have port put in thursday...can anyone tell me if hurts being put in ? I just want to be prepared. then chemo starts next week.I believe. steph

Tethys41 said:

Port installation
Steph,
Sorry you find yourself at this board. There are a lot of good people here who can support you, so don't be shy about posting.

You will be semi-concious when they install your port. Although you may feel some tugging, you won't feel any pain, and frankly you won't care much because the drugs they give you are THAT good. You will have a bandage over the port area, and also one on your neck. You will not be able to get them wet for about 10 days. They may temporarily remove the bandage on your port to access it, but the bandage on your neck should absolutely not be removed until you are re-examined by the doctor who installs the port, or whomever is doing the follow up on that.

The area around the port will be sore for a couple of weeks, but eventually, the discomfort will subside. For the first few weeks, it will be sensitive when they access the port to give you chemo treatment, but that will also lessen over time. You can ask your doctor for some numbing cream that you can apply to the port area a half hour prior to them accessing it, so that it is less uncomfortable when they access it.

Best of luck to you Steph. All of these things seem scary at first, but as you experience them, they become less and less terrifying.
Take care

Steph: one more hint on your port placement....
My surgeon who put in my port back in 2009 gave me some great advice that I will pass along to you. He said the weight of your breasts pulls down on the port when it's still new and tender. He suggested that I put on a good bra the minute I get up and leave it on all day. So I hiked up all the straps on all of my bras, and to this day, I keep 'the girls' propped up. You'll see what I mean once you get your port in. If you cup a hand under that breast and push it up, MOST of the downward pull on your port is alleviated. I am not especially busty either. I also ordered 2 'sleep bras' that I wore at night at first because it felt so much better not to have that 'tug' on my port. I no longer do that, but I love my sleep bras for wearing to scans as they have no fasteners or underwires, so I got my money out of them.

I have a PowerPort, and you may want to ask for that kind, too, as they can be accessed for CT-scan and PET-scan contrasts, while some other types of ports aren't made to do that. They didn't really want to give me one, as they stand up quite a bit if you are boney where they put it in and they initially suggested a smaller port for petite women and children. But they relented without too much discussion and let me have what I wanted. I LOVE my port, LOVE it, because it has saved me from countless painful IV and lab sticks over the last 2 years. I wish I would have gotten it earlier; I did my 6 carbo/taxol rounds without it and the veins in my arms are shot now.

As long as you're going bra shopping, you may also want to snag up some end-of-summer-sale V-neck and button-down tops if you don't have a supply of those. You'll want higher neck tops to cover your port for every day, and some V-neck or deep U-neck and button-down tops for chemo days when they'll need to be able to get at your port.

I guess everything's an excuse for ME to shop (online)! HA! (I also got a new wig all 3 times I was bald from chemo; gotta be good to yourself!)

(((((Steph))))) The port placement surgery isn't painful at all. I yak-yak-yaked to the surgeon the whole time he was putting it in, high on the meds.