need more advice

Lindsy,

My mom just finished four rounds of the same combination.  Mom was never in pain, but it took time in between the rounds for her to recover.  My mom is 79.  After her first round, she was wiped.  DIdnt get out of bed for two days.  BY Day 11 she started to feel better only to start round 2 in 3 days. 

For my mom, we only know that her bilirubin count is dropping and her liver function tests look better so the docs use that as an indicator that things are progressing in the right direction.  If your MIL's blood counts are too off, they will postpone treatment or reduce the strength.  I will say that chemo does really weird things to blood counts and the cancer is no better.  If the docs were not worried about her blood counts then I did not either. 

Chemo is cumulative, but we did see that each time was so different as to how she felt.  It has been unpredictable.  I would try to encourage her to eat or try Boost or Ensure just for the calories.  Is she nauseous?  Mom takes something for that and that allows her to eat.  ALso, small, frequent meals may be easier to tolerate.  My mom definitely pushes herself to eat as she wants to be able to continue treatment.

She will have a scan next week to see if the chemo worked.

Best of luck,
Lauren

Hi Lindsy,

My daughter, Lauren is on the same chemo as your mother-in-law. She takes the oral form of 5-FU though, which is called Xeloda. The Xeloda is way worse on her than the 5-FU was. She was on 5-FU with her first chemo which was with Gemzar and Cisplatin. She has to take the Xeloda for two weeks and then gets a week off. She usually gets scans every 3 months. Sometimes MRI and sometime CT. Her doctor will remove her from a certain chemo if he sees it is not working. Sometimes the dosage needs to be regulated if it cannot be tolerated. Xeloda is infamous for making feet really sore and red, so her doctor lowered her dosage from 3500 mgs. a day to 3000 and she is much better with that side effect this time. My daughter used to have a lot of side and back pain, but since being on this chemo, she has had only back pain once in awhile. She has not been as hungry on this chemo regime and she sleeps quite a bit. She says she feels better than she has since being diagnosed, so I guess that is good. I think everyone reacts differently to chemo. I think Lauren can tolerate a lot since she is really young. She is only 26. I hope your mother-in-law starts feeling better and can tolerate her chemo. If not, she may have to switch to something else. She really needs to eat something like soup, mashed potatoes, instant breakfast, or even Ensure. Goodness sakes, three weeks of not eating is worrisome. I would definitely talk to the doctor about that. I hope things turn around for her. Take care and God bless.

Love, -Pam