Cinco Vidas

Your doctor has told you to “eat a balanced diet,” but when you’re going through cancer treatments, sometimes food just doesn’t taste right. You can lose your appetite, easily get sick to your stomach, or find that eating most foods is similar to chewing cardboard. Maybe you’ve seen a nutritionist, and you’ve got a list of vitamins and minerals running around in your head, but no idea how to start turning that information into something you’d actually like to eat.

Enter Rebecca Katz, your personal culinary translator. Consultant, teacher, speaker, author, and first and foremost—cook—Rebecca has created (with co-author Mat Edelson) a book just for cancer patients and their caregivers. It’s called Cancer-Fighting Kitchen, and inside, she shares delicious recipes sure to get you eating again, as well as tips on what foods battle various side effects.
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You may already be conscientious about self exams and regular screening, but do you know the symptoms of breast cancer? Could you tell if you—or someone close to you—were at risk?

Most of us have been so well educated in exams and mammograms that we think they, alone, will warn us of any possible problems. But these methods aren’t foolproof. Many women have saved their own lives by being aware of cancer symptoms, and reporting any unusual sensations or concerns to their doctor.

Below are potential signs or symptoms of breast cancer. No need to be paranoid, as changes in your breasts are usually not related to cancer, but if you experience any of these, check with your doctor just to be safe.  (From “Breast Cancer Symptoms” by Andrea Markowitz, Ph.D., and the Mayo Clinic.) (more…)

It’s not all in your head. If you find it hard to focus, remember things, retrieve words, analyze difficult data, or multi-task like you used to before cancer treatment, you may have chemo-brain.

Doctors used to shrug off patient complaints about foggy thinking and forgetfulness, but finally science is catching up with what patients have long known. Just like chemotherapy can cause problems in the rest of the body, it can do so in the brain, as well, and these problems can last long after treatment is over.

“When you are an accountant and you can only fumble with numbers,” says survivor Jenise, “retirement was the only option….[I]t would have helped if there had been more awareness of what was happening to my brain along with all the other physical ailments overwhelming my body.” (more…)

Find yourself unable to taste food after chemotherapy? Does meat seem to have a metal flavoring? It’s not a side effect to take lightly. According to Sarhill and colleagues, in a study published in Support Care Cancer (2003; 11:652-659), for as many as 20% of cancer patients, the primary cause of morbidity was malnutrition, not malignancy—and Jae Hee Hong, lead researcher on a recent study published in the Journal of Supportive Oncology (2009;7:58-65), says disturbances in taste and smell caused by cancer treatments could have a lot to do with that malnutrition. (more…)

Tamoxifen is a popular drug that’s been used to treat breast cancer for over 30 years. It helps prevent cancer from returning, inhibits new tumors from developing in the other breast, and slows the growth of cancer cells in the body. In some high-risk cases, it’s been prescribed to help prevent breast cancer, because of its ability to block the effects of estrogen in breast tissue. However, it has a lot of side effects that women need to be aware of. One is its ability to slightly raise the risk of uterine cancer. (more…)

Going through radiation therapy for breast cancer? How about a glass of red wine to toast your strength and courage? According to Italian researchers, in the August issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics, it may help reduce the skin damage often caused by radiation.

As you may know, radiation can often leave the skin red, irritated, and burned. Sometimes the wounds take several weeks to heal. Most current medications that help prevent skin problems can also reduce the effectiveness of radiation. (more…)

If you’ve lost your hair due to chemotherapy treatments, you may have gotten a wig to get you through until your treatments are over and your hair grows back again. Wigs help us feel confident, beautiful and “normal” as we fight cancer, but they can also be difficult to wear.

“I kept lifting the forehead to scratch,” says survivor cebula.

“I can’t advise on wigs,” says survivor lo_mcg, “because I found wearing a wig hot, itchy, and uncomfortable.”

Caregiver saurus3118 agrees. “My mom did not like her wig…said it was hot and itchy. Her scalp was somewhat tender anyway.” (more…)

Some of us, when going through cancer treatments, can end up looking like we’ve been in a bad fight. Of course, it’s not back-alley conflicts causing the problem, but blood platelets that just don’t want to stick together. In other words, a shortage of clots.

“I finished my last chemo,” says a fighter on inspire.com, “and my skin seems like it’s getting more and more fragile. My dog jumped on me, barely touched me, and I got a bleeding scratch on my leg. Today, I looked down at my arm and it was bleeding…” (more…)

Chemotherapy is most often administered by injection, which can result in an irritating, sometimes serious, side effect—the injection-site reaction.

Two basic types of reactions can occur: an irritation (or local allergic reaction called a flare reaction), and an extravasation (leakage of medication), or in normal language, minor and major. A minor reaction causes redness, itching, tenderness, and perhaps swelling, and is usually the result of an allergic reaction to the injection. Certain chemo drugs known as irritants are more likely to cause this type of reaction, like bleomycin, carboplatin, etoposide, and others. Usually the reaction goes away fairly quickly. In the meantime, you can apply ice or cold compresses to the area. (more…)

Patients experiencing neuropathy can have trouble with everyday tasks like buttoning a shirt or tying a tie.

American comic W. C. Fields is quoted as having said, “Happiness means quiet nerves.” Of course, he also said, “I only drink to steady my nerves. Sometimes I’m so steady I don’t move for months.”

Cancer patients dealing with neuropathy may sympathize with Fields, as the side effect can drive one to considering several stiff drinks. “My mom was diagnosed with MM [multiple myeloma) in January 07,” says caregiver apachejane. She has been on chemotherapy up until about two months ago and has severe neuropathy. The pain is so bad she just cries.”

Fortunately, apachejane reports that her mother saw a doctor who put her on several medications, which helped her to feel significantly better. But this side effect is one that many patients struggle with, sometimes for months or years after chemotherapy is over. (more…)