Cravings?

leesag
leesag Member Posts: 621 Member
edited May 2023 in Ovarian Cancer #1
Ok...so this weird and a bit light hearted, but we all need to think of something weird and wacky from time to time!

I have found that since my diagnosis, I have experienced a range of cravings...have you experienced the same thing?

Initially, after diagnosis, I really wanted wine and chocolate..lots and lots of wine and chocolate!

Before surgery, I was a diet coke addict, I drank diet coke for breakfast and throughout the day, since surgery however, I'm sure the coke company will be posting a significant loss in profits, because I can't STAND the stuff!

I woke up from surgery craving ginger ale and Luigis Lemon Italian Ice. That craving continued well into the second chemo.

Then around the third chemo, I started craving apples...gala apples....cut into wedges...at room temperature. A very specific and weird craving, it lasted until between the fourth and fifth chemos.

The most recent craving, since about chemo #5, has been citrus. I crave all things citrus. Lemonade, Orange Juice, Extra Limes in my Corona, starburst fruit juice...if it's citrus I must have it!



What are you craving?

I have to run to the store for more lemonade ...I'll check in when I get back!

Leesa ;)

Comments

  • beth1465
    beth1465 Member Posts: 63 Member
    Me too!!!
    I also crave citrus, expecially lemon and limeade! On my way home from chemo I always have to get a mango fruit smoothie from Spangles. I crave Subway sandwiches, and spicy foods to dull the metal taste. I used to drink iced tea and coffee like crazy. After surgery the thought of coffee was sickening and tea gave me a splitting headache from the caffeine. Now I just drink alot of water, and lemonade!

    I guess odd and specific cravings must go along with chemo.

    Beth
  • Hissy_Fitz
    Hissy_Fitz Member Posts: 1,834
    I had the citrus craving
    I had the citrus craving after my surgery. It was the only thing I would eat for weeks and weeks. Except strawberries. I started eating strawberries around my second treatment.

    Right now, raspberry sherbet is my new best friend. In between the strawberries and raspberry sherbet, it was carbs.

    Pre-surgery I was a devotee of Starbucks lattes and Coke Zero. It took a long time for me to cultivate a new taste for either one. I don't drink nearly as much Coke as I used to....less than 8 ounces a day.

    Carlene
  • citrusgirlrn
    citrusgirlrn Member Posts: 5
    beth1465 said:

    Me too!!!
    I also crave citrus, expecially lemon and limeade! On my way home from chemo I always have to get a mango fruit smoothie from Spangles. I crave Subway sandwiches, and spicy foods to dull the metal taste. I used to drink iced tea and coffee like crazy. After surgery the thought of coffee was sickening and tea gave me a splitting headache from the caffeine. Now I just drink alot of water, and lemonade!

    I guess odd and specific cravings must go along with chemo.

    Beth

    Cravings are just one way
    Cravings are just one way your body tries to replenish what's been depleted and are often hormonal in nature. Just keep in mind when your at the store not to over buy for your craving. What you can't get enough today you may loathe tomorrow. Just look forward to the next strange combination your body may want.
  • saundra
    saundra Member Posts: 1,370 Member
    Currently
    Popcycles and watermelon. Yes,I too have weird cravings. For 7 weeks after my colostomy nothing sounded or tasted good and then it kicked in again. Saundra
  • arbor3
    arbor3 Member Posts: 103
    Cravings
    Nothing wierd or wacky about it. After Chemo treatment you have such a bad taste in your mouth and no appitate. So anything that sounds good to me and tastes good I go overboardl.
    I love melons, and crave them, thank goodness it is summer.

    Dinora
  • kayandok
    kayandok Member Posts: 1,202 Member
    Cravings
    Lisa, I can tell you are a teacher, you are so good at giving us an assignment:)

    With my initial carbo/taxol, it was sweets, and especially home made chocolate chip cookies. I gained 30 pounds.

    On cisplatin/gemzar, I craved oranges, tomatoes, cucumbers and boiled eggs (when I could eat that is) and had to have lemon in my water, or it tasted bitter. I couldn't stand the smell of rice cooking, meat, or coffee. I lost 30 pounds.

    On doxil, it was winter and I wanted soups, hot coffee and hot cocoa. I also wanted hot food, especially carbs. But, I had to wait until it cooled. I ate a lot and spent a lot of time in my recliner, soaking my feet in ice water. I gained the 30 pounds back. Darn!

    Now, I am on chemo break, and am trying to cut back on calories and loose some weight. So, for me the cravings have changed with each chemo, and so has my weight, LOL
  • Hissy_Fitz
    Hissy_Fitz Member Posts: 1,834
    kayandok said:

    Cravings
    Lisa, I can tell you are a teacher, you are so good at giving us an assignment:)

    With my initial carbo/taxol, it was sweets, and especially home made chocolate chip cookies. I gained 30 pounds.

    On cisplatin/gemzar, I craved oranges, tomatoes, cucumbers and boiled eggs (when I could eat that is) and had to have lemon in my water, or it tasted bitter. I couldn't stand the smell of rice cooking, meat, or coffee. I lost 30 pounds.

    On doxil, it was winter and I wanted soups, hot coffee and hot cocoa. I also wanted hot food, especially carbs. But, I had to wait until it cooled. I ate a lot and spent a lot of time in my recliner, soaking my feet in ice water. I gained the 30 pounds back. Darn!

    Now, I am on chemo break, and am trying to cut back on calories and loose some weight. So, for me the cravings have changed with each chemo, and so has my weight, LOL

    Food cravings are
    Food cravings are interesting. Some cravings (crunching ice, for example) are associated with specific nutritional needs, but not necessarily the food you are craving. Others mean your body is lacking in that particular element.

    When my daughter was pregnant she had a yen for sour stuff. Nothing was sour enough. Then she found little green envelopes at a convenience store of something called "Sour Pickle", or "Pickle Powder" - something like that - and she was in heaven!
  • gabby55
    gabby55 Member Posts: 2
    kayandok said:

    Cravings
    Lisa, I can tell you are a teacher, you are so good at giving us an assignment:)

    With my initial carbo/taxol, it was sweets, and especially home made chocolate chip cookies. I gained 30 pounds.

    On cisplatin/gemzar, I craved oranges, tomatoes, cucumbers and boiled eggs (when I could eat that is) and had to have lemon in my water, or it tasted bitter. I couldn't stand the smell of rice cooking, meat, or coffee. I lost 30 pounds.

    On doxil, it was winter and I wanted soups, hot coffee and hot cocoa. I also wanted hot food, especially carbs. But, I had to wait until it cooled. I ate a lot and spent a lot of time in my recliner, soaking my feet in ice water. I gained the 30 pounds back. Darn!

    Now, I am on chemo break, and am trying to cut back on calories and loose some weight. So, for me the cravings have changed with each chemo, and so has my weight, LOL

    after not eating for 2 or 3
    after not eating for 2 or 3 weeks other then bits of food enough to keep me alive and some ensure i got a craving one night for dill pickles i came into the kitchen and started eating them from the jar 5 pickles i thought this was to weird as i hadnt eaten hardly anything and this is what i craved and also since the chemos i cant tolerate much sweets and thats even weider cause sweets were my downfall..so this ovc had done some interstingchanges, now if the weight would just fall awya with the cancer all would be good...GOD BLESS US ALL AND MAY WE BEAT THIS HORRID DISEASE..PRAYING FOR US ALL...GABBY55
  • msfanciful
    msfanciful Member Posts: 559
    This is so funny you brought
    This is so funny you brought this up Leesa,

    I thought my new cravings were just my own little bizarre behavior .

    In general, all my life I detested broccoli, asparagas, artichokes, cottage cheese and I was never a drinker (not even socially).

    NOW? I LOVE all of the above and now I find myself craving my occassional margarita (and it better be made right too) LOL!

    Friends and family just look at me in awe!

    I've always had a love for chocolates pre-surgery and post...I guess that will never change!

    Go figure.


    Sharon
  • swk247
    swk247 Member Posts: 3 Member

    I am a 5 year leukemia survivor. I lost a lot of weight in the hospital because the food was vile! Once I got home. all I wanted was Gatorade and jello. I always detested jello, but was craving it. The next craving I had was salad with no lettuce. It had to have cauliflower, tomatoes, white onions, boiled egg, black olives and chicken. After that, I craved seafood salad and cheese popcorn. Then it was chips and salsa. Next was Lays salt and vinegar chips. Then it was Chester's cheese puffcorn, then peanut butter M&Ms, Then Mike and Ike and Swedish fish. Now it's soup, cobb salad, and Sixlets (which are hard to find)!

  • ebbradford1224
    ebbradford1224 Member Posts: 2 *

    I totally craved salt & carbs-specifically McDonald’s!! Go figure

  • Momschooling
    Momschooling Member Posts: 106 Member

    I go from not being able to eat almost anything for 5 days after chemo, to becoming an eating machine, it's so weird lol. I am not losing weight because I gain it all back after the initial loss. I feel sick if I don't eat for a few hrs, dizzy and nauseated.

  • Queli
    Queli Member Posts: 1 *

    Cravings?

    I'm in my 4th chemo treatment from 6 and I never had a sweet tooth before, and now is like I'm craving sweets all the time, and the colder the water the better, which I never liked before. One thing is for sure, when I open a can of corn, green beans, sweet peas, I taste the chemical from the can, and I can not eat it like I use to. not sure if that's only me. Is weird how the taste buds changes with the chemo!

  • stephO
    stephO Member Posts: 3 Member

    I definitely have been having weird cravings. I go from from not eating for a week following chemo to eating everything in sight in week 2. I also lose my vision the first week, everything is blurry, dies anyone else experience this? A few weeks ago my crave was rotisserie chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy. I crave pasta sauce all the time. This week has been Mexican food. Bean,beef and chicken burritos, nachos with chicken. I just finished my 5th treatment and have 1 more to go. Side effects have been very rough.

  • Momschooling
    Momschooling Member Posts: 106 Member

    That is me with the food, eating everything after the first week has passed. I have brain fog with some blurry vision the first few days.

  • stephO
    stephO Member Posts: 3 Member

    So you can relate with me. I have brain fog too, my vision is gone for at least a week it's so scary. Praying for positive outcomes for you ❤️

  • Momschooling
    Momschooling Member Posts: 106 Member

    Thank you, best wishes to you as well :) I feel the anti nausea drug compazine makes the blurry vision worse, are you on that? Are you feeling weird pelvic wise, like pms by any chance, each chemo it gets worse? I feel I am the only one dealing this with this and obviously it's scaring me, but my ca125 is very low (last time was 10). I have no uterus, cervix or ovaries but I have all the phantom pains going on...

  • stephO
    stephO Member Posts: 3 Member

    I am not on any anti nausea medication, that's the one symptom I haven't had. I had a reaction of itchy hands/feet from the first treatment. I'm on a daily regimen of Zyrtec, ibuprofen and Benadryl. Once in a while I have stabbing pain on left/right side but at different times. I feel like it might be nerve pain, I haven't felt any other pelvic pain. I too had a total hysterectomy. It could be just that, phantom pain. Your body went through shock with the hysterectomy and chemo so your body hasn't had time to process not having a menstrual cycle anymore. If you haven't already, express these concerns to your oncologist.

  • Momschooling
    Momschooling Member Posts: 106 Member

    That's great you aren't having the nausea, it hit me pretty hard, it feels like being pregnant to me without the joy lol, mostly the first week but it appears randomly afterwards to with a general bad taste/yuck feeling. I am getting scans this week partly due to the pain I am in, we are concerned that chemo might not be fully working with my type of cancer and anti-estrogen therapy is better. If scans are clear we move onto letrozole, if not it may be radiation? My ca 125 was 12 after surgery, then now down to 10 after chemo but I am having a lot of discomfort in my pelvic/back. I had my hysterectomy in January 2021 but kept ovaries, then my ovaries along with other things were removed Jan 2022. I am hoping maybe this pain is due to scar tissue or endometriosis returning and not something cancerous.