I am new here-please help.

hicarm
hicarm Member Posts: 57
edited March 2014 in Colorectal Cancer #1
Hi I am new here. My father age 62 years old is diagnosed with stage 4 colorectal with liver mets. He went through surgery to resect his colon. 2 weeks after surgery, he is undergoing chemo with oxyliplatin and xeloda. He said he feels knocked down and weak. My question no. 1 is, how long is he going to be knocked down. He lives in Hong Kong and I in the united states. I sent him a bunch of supplements like multi, selenium, CQ 10, flaxseed and garlic. So my question number 2 is, do you think any of these wil be helpful? He is reluctant to take so many pills, he never even took mulit vitamins... Please help

Comments

  • CAMaura
    CAMaura Member Posts: 719 Member
    #2
    Hi There -- I am sure that he does feel knocked down and weak, both from surgery and the beginning of chemo. Taking supplements during chemo is a good question. Some docs ask patients not to, although they mostly restrict anti-oxidants because they interfere with the mechanism of the chemo-drugs. It is so nice that you are involved in his care. I would keep contact with him as much as you are able to, encouraging him to eat well, and to drink tons of water and to discuss the side effects he is experiencing with you so that you can give him feedback and to support him (if only to talk to the doc about them). All the best to you and I hope the two of you will be able to visit very soon -- Maura
  • Kanort
    Kanort Member Posts: 1,272 Member
    #3
    Hi and welcome! I think you will hear differing opinions on taking supplements and chemo simultaneously. My oncologist gave his approval and I took a high potency supplement while receiving oxaliplatin. However, I think i have read of other oncologists who restrict their patients from doing so. I would think that if his resection was only two weeks ago, he would still be recovering from that as well as the effects of the chemo. I know it must be hard being so far away from him while he is going through this. I will keep him in my prayers.

    Kay
  • well
    well Member Posts: 26
    #4
    My resection was August 2004 and I'm still knocked down. I can't say how long it takes until that resolves, as I have more surgery tomorrow morning. But it seems to be at least 16 months, for me at least.

    I was on the same meds as your father, by the way. I didn't have the supplements so can't say how they would work.
  • rthornton
    rthornton Member Posts: 346 Member
    #5
    Hi. I was diagnosed stage four with liver mets back in May. After 6 chemo cycles my scans have been clean, so now I am holding my breath and hoping that they stay that way.

    There is a bit of a debate between oncologists and naturopathic doctors about high potency multivitamins. Many, but not all oncologists believe that a high presence of antioxidants will help to protect cancer cells from the effects of chemotherapy and radiation. In oncology-speak, they believe that antioxidants diminish the tumor kill ratio of chemotherapy, but even more specifically radiation treatments according to a colleague of my oncologist that I once asked about this very matter. Those doctors on the naturopathic side of medicine, and the unfortunate truth is that the disciplines are often at odds with one another, often state that supplements high in antioxidants will actually protect a cancer patient from the ravishing effects of chemotherapy and radiation, while enhancing the tumor kill ratio. A patient who wants to maximize all avenues of treatment will likely be confused by the contradictory predictions. We patients do not wish to compromise the effectiveness of any treatment, while protecting all of our healthy cells has a certain undeniable appeal.

    I chose to take the high potency multivitamins during treatment, and they might very well have helped me. By all appearances, the multivitamins did not diminish the tumor kill ratio of the chemotherapy. Of course, there is no way that I can conclusively prove or disprove such a claim. I can only guess that it did not hurt matters since my last two PET scans showed that my liver mets disappeared.

    Best wishes for you and your father. This is a great place to post questions if you ever need information.

    Rodney
  • hicarm
    hicarm Member Posts: 57
    #6
    rthornton said:

    Hi. I was diagnosed stage four with liver mets back in May. After 6 chemo cycles my scans have been clean, so now I am holding my breath and hoping that they stay that way.

    There is a bit of a debate between oncologists and naturopathic doctors about high potency multivitamins. Many, but not all oncologists believe that a high presence of antioxidants will help to protect cancer cells from the effects of chemotherapy and radiation. In oncology-speak, they believe that antioxidants diminish the tumor kill ratio of chemotherapy, but even more specifically radiation treatments according to a colleague of my oncologist that I once asked about this very matter. Those doctors on the naturopathic side of medicine, and the unfortunate truth is that the disciplines are often at odds with one another, often state that supplements high in antioxidants will actually protect a cancer patient from the ravishing effects of chemotherapy and radiation, while enhancing the tumor kill ratio. A patient who wants to maximize all avenues of treatment will likely be confused by the contradictory predictions. We patients do not wish to compromise the effectiveness of any treatment, while protecting all of our healthy cells has a certain undeniable appeal.

    I chose to take the high potency multivitamins during treatment, and they might very well have helped me. By all appearances, the multivitamins did not diminish the tumor kill ratio of the chemotherapy. Of course, there is no way that I can conclusively prove or disprove such a claim. I can only guess that it did not hurt matters since my last two PET scans showed that my liver mets disappeared.

    Best wishes for you and your father. This is a great place to post questions if you ever need information.

    Rodney

    Thank you for all the replys. What do you mean high-potency vitamins? What I got exactly were the trader joe's brand, Super Crusade. I don't think the dosage are that outragous. He did show them to his doctor and he said that these are not going to hurt my dad, but as a scientist he does not think that there are enough evidence that he would go and prescibe them to his patients. So are you saying that it DID help you to feel less knocked out after chemo?even just a little bit of normal dosage of multi vitamins?
    He has agreed to start with the multi vitamin, and a selenium 200 mg. The rest (the cq 10, garlic and flaxseed oil), he will wait. It is very reassuring to hear others in similar situation.
  • hicarm
    hicarm Member Posts: 57
    #7
    Kanort said:

    Hi and welcome! I think you will hear differing opinions on taking supplements and chemo simultaneously. My oncologist gave his approval and I took a high potency supplement while receiving oxaliplatin. However, I think i have read of other oncologists who restrict their patients from doing so. I would think that if his resection was only two weeks ago, he would still be recovering from that as well as the effects of the chemo. I know it must be hard being so far away from him while he is going through this. I will keep him in my prayers.

    Kay

    Thanks for the message. So do you feel that it helped with recovering from being "knocked out" by chemo? Is the normal period 3-4 days to bounce back from chemo? It was his first chemo. The doctor did not object at all, nor did he encourage. He just said these "would not hurt him". What are you taking, may I ask? Thank you again for replying.
  • taraHK
    taraHK Member Posts: 1,952 Member
    #8
    Hi. I am living in Hong Kong so if I can be of any help to you or your father, please let me know. You can email me directly (click on the envelope below my message) and I'd be happy to supply my phone number, if at all useful.
    I was diagnosed with rectal cancer Dec 02 and had spread to my lung this year. I am currently on a very similar regime to your father: I am FOLFOX (oxaliplatin + 5FU + leucovorin) - the "liquid" form of what he is on. I do have fatigue with the chemo. But intense fatigue did not start till after the 9th (or so) cycle. I imagine he is still fatigued from the surgery.
    People have already written about vitamins, etc. My oncologist here in HK put me on multivitamin (esp vit c) to help with the decreased white blood cell counts I got as a result of chemo.
  • 2bhealed
    2bhealed Member Posts: 2,064 Member
    #9
    hi and welcome,

    That your father just had surgery 2 weeks ago and is now undergoing Chemo seems rather harsh. I feel for your father. My surgeon told me to go home and recover before we even thought about chemo. But then I opted to not do any chemo anyway.....He actually told me to not even see my oncologist for a month!

    As for the supplement question a fabulous resource for this is:

    Beating Cancer With Nutrition by Patrick Quillin.

    He goes through all supplements one by one and explains exactly what it does and how it can enhance either the chemo or radiation or how it can protect you or how it can work on the cancer.

    The CoQ10 is a really good idea and the garlic and flax are KNOWN cancer healers. So why not??

    Wishing your father all the best.

    peace, emily
  • scouty
    scouty Member Posts: 1,965 Member
    #10
    Great question and not one that you will ever get a true answer to. You know waht they say about opinions, like booties, everyone has one.

    I was lucky that while doing chemo (stage IV with mets to liver and lungs), my onc. approved of my heavy duty supplements. Surgery was not an option for me so I did chemo (folfox with Avastin) for 8 months. At first, the cancer cell kill rate was pretty good but then everything plateaued. In the mean time, the side effects of the chemo was really getting to me. I chose to stop chemo and follow the direction of a naturopathic doctor. That was Nov. 14th 2004. I juiced, drank teas, took lots of pills (natural vitamin, mineral, and herbal supplements)and completely changed my diet to an all natural/organic one.

    I am now NED (no evidence of disease for the last 6 months) and have never had any surgeries.

    Read the book Emily recommends, it will get you started in the right direction to find ways you can compliment the chemo and boost your Dad's immune system to help him fight along with the chemo.

    Lisa P.

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