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Marijuana and extracts thereof are extremely effective regarding these symptoms. It is possible to get this in the places that allow medicinal marijuana. You have to experiment with the dose as too much will knock her out and too little iis obvious. This is good for nausea and sleep poblems in addition to creating the munchies.
Marijuana is extremely effective regarding nausea. My sister got some cookies made from some sort of extract from a chemo patient in California. I keep them in the freezer and eat about 1/4 of one the evening after infusion. This also helps with lack of sleep due to the steroid they give me.
My experience has been 8 cycles of Gem + Cisplatin until the side effects became severe. This is primarily neuropathy. At that point the treatment had been very effective but I was told that was the end for that combo. Each cycle was 2 + 1 off which seems to be the standard thing.
There was a 6 week holiday followed by Gem + Carboplatin ever two weeks. The cancer is now increasing at a fairly slow rate, but obviously not going to be succesful in the end. I am currently looking for alternatives primarily through clinical trials.
After one year I am still working and get to play an occasional round of golf. The psychological effects are sometimes difficult but after the initial shock of diagnosis, not overwhelming. I still hold hope for a magic bullet but the glacial pace of research doesnt holdmuch hope.
Yes I agree. I didn’t mean to pontificate as I’m certainly no expert in this field. Cancer patients, including myself, are looking for others that point the way for them. Nothing would make me happier than to see a case like mine that points the way to the future. I’m still waiting.
Thanks for the encouragement and yes the strong positive result from chemo was a big boost.
One thing I have learned from all this, and my doctor says something like this every time I see him, the disease is not one thing and comparisons are for the most part meaningless. Dr. Javle mentions this in his presentaion on this site, that this is one of the big frustrations in the research for cures. How do you extract meaning from a trial when there are multiple diseases in the study?
My version of the disease did not originate in the Liver although the Liver is involved. This apparently affects how and where it moves and I suppose the efficacy of the chemo. I think the point of this is to keep after it and if one approach doesn’t work, go another way. I recently had a surgical consult at Johns Hopkins and he predicably told me I was not a candidate for that. Then I recently read an article about a lady who got a surgeon at Stanford to operate multiple times and this has apparently prolonged her life.
I am also extremely sure that keeping active is a big part of this. It would be very easy to collapse on the couch due to chemo affects, but maintaining physical activity seems to enhance the immune response and I see a common theme with this regarding the so-called miracle survivors. They are all physically active.
Cathy, Your status is similar to mine. Finished 8 cycles of gem/cis with extremely good results but there is no next protocol. I have decided as you have to continue with chemo. I don’t want to let C get the upper hand so have decided to keep pressing.
How are you doing with side effects of Cisplatin? I have some fairly bad neuropathy so decided to go with Carboplatin for now. I have no idea how this will turn out but start back tomorrow morning after a 6 week holiday.
