The Colon Club

I HAD PROBLEMS STAYING HYDRATED DURIG MY TREATMENTS. I ASKED MY ONC IF I COULD COME INTO THE OFFICE AND GET A LITER OR TWO OF FLUID A DAY AFTER A CHEMO TREATMENT. THIS HELPED ME TO FINISH UP MY TREATMENTS. I LOST 25LBS DURING CHEMO NOT BECAUSE OF NAUSEA, BUT BECAUSE OF THE COMPLAINTS YOU HAD, NO APPETITE AND NOTHING TASTED WELL. STAY HYDRATED AND GOOD LUCK...JIM

STAGE III RECTAL CA 9/08
CHEMO RAD
LAR WITH ILEO
6 ROUNDS XELOX
ILEO REVERSAL 2 MONTHS AGO

I had tx on Mondays, then on Tue and Wed I would come in for hydration at the Onc office.
Ask your Onc about this - they also added Calcium and Magnesium during this time.

I also drank a lot of Pedialyte and hot teas. Sipping all day.

Good luck,
Rick

I have the same problem!!!! I have two more to go and I think the secret of getting thru it is fluids! Thanks for all of the info!
Pam

I have the same problem!!!! I have two more to go and I think the secret of getting thru it is fluids! Thanks for all of the info!
Pam

Tea, tea, and more tea. Particularly Rishi blueberry roibos tea, African red bush, and there's some kind of tea called Tummy Comfort tea (if you like I can look up who makes it, it's supposed to be for kids but I love it, it's a mixture of chamomile, peppermint, and a couple others). Also hot water w/lemon and warm milk w/a little honey. The red tea and roibos are nice because they're loaded w/antioxidants. I'm allergic to caffeine so I can't drink green tea but a lot of people swear by it. Good luck dude. PLEASE try to keep hydrated. I've been hospitalized for dehydration and it SUCKS. I hope this helps.

Warm wishes,
Starbuck

Like everyone else, I had to do warmer that room temp items. Usually tea, coffee, water. Even though it tasted funny, I still drank. My husband made me.

i drank tea

Try one of those boxes of assorted herbal (or decaf) teas, and see which ones you like You may find that flavors you use to dislike taste good now. Doctor them up with lemon, or milk or honey. With hot weather coming on, it is more important than ever to stay hydrated. Susan

Towards the end of my pregnancy I was taking in 120-150 oz of water or tea daily(The diahrea was so severe it was either this or get admitted for IV fluids). Once I started chemo, water was very unappealing, I pretty much was lucky to drink 1 glass of water throughout the day. I also have a water cooler, so I always did 2 inches of hot water, the rest cold. I drank lots of hot tea, green or white and vitamin water. After Folfox I couldn't drink green,white teas or vitamin water. I just started being able to drink green tea again, white tea still makes me nauseas. Thankfully water is good again, I am back to drinking lots of water.

If your having a hard time with drinking fluids, Smart Water by glaceua is good. It has the electrolytes of gatorade but is unflavored, no high fructose corn syrup. Just tastes like water. When on Folfox I would get cramps and a achiness in my legs from dehydration, this is what the nurses suggested. Plus it was in small bottles so I could take it with me and it didn't need to be refrigerated.

Not just on folfox but on all my chemos.
Drink anything and everything you can!
If you think you might like it or be able to tolerate it- try it and drink it.
All of the above drinks mentioned are good but you have to find what works for you.
I get metal mouth and major diarrhea and I just can't get water down my throat when I'm on chemo.Everything I drink is at room temperature because if it is cold it bothers my mouth and I get cold chills as it goes down.
Gatorade comes in many flavors.When I get tired of one flavor or one thing then I try another.
If you can handle cold try Popsicle's,sorbet,Italian ices,anything with no milk.Pedilite comes in Popsicle's too.
7up,flavored water,crystal light,Hi C,Capri Sun,Hansen's,Snapple,tea,popsicle's whatever you can.Try flat carbonated drinks.The dark sodas like coke have syrup in them and can cause more diarrhea.I like root beer better.Citrus is good for metal mouth but not diarrhea.
Lemon heads,hard candy and gummies help with the metal mouth.
Try watering down oj,lemonade,etc.. if it's too strong.
Tea is a diuretic which can cause diarrhea,try decaffeinated black tea but if you can drink any kind of tea it's better than ending up in the hospital.
Mexican agua's(waters) are good too and if you can't find them you can make them at home in your blender-fruit,sugar,water-watermelon,strawberry,melon etc...
Smoothies can be made with milk,soy milk or lactose free nutrition drinks and you can put your vitamins,protein and anything you want in it.
In the almost 4 years I have been on chemo I have tried just about everything even extra fluids by IV.

Candy

I frequently had to really force myself to drink - it was so important to get through the treatment without being hospitalized for dehydration.

I drank:

-peppermint tea
-fruit smoothies that we would make with fresh fruit that was room temperature and from yogurt that we would bring up to room temp
-hot lemonade, Tang, limeade
-hot apple cider
-ginger tea (home made as well as commercial)
- lots of water
- and as a treat on the day before infusion (my one day for cold drinks!) - a prickly pear margarita! (But even at the end of the four and a half months of adjuvant chemo I couldn't drink these).

SBL

Thanks to everyone for sharing your hydration stories. I have to get to the supermarket before the next infusion and stock up! I really appreciate everyone's help in this.

hot tea...all day every day. It doesn't give you the 50 lemons ouch feeling, and there are many herbal/fruity flavors

I usually love herbal teas, but found I couldn't always tolerate them on chemo. As things progessed, I tried different things that I would not normally drink.

Tahitian Treat soda. Normally I'd NEVER go near the stuff, but for a couple of chemo cycles I got that down (at room temp) when I couldn't get much else down.

Room temp orange soda. (Another thing I'd normally not drink.)

Warm apple cider.

Room temp cranberry juice.

Blue Gatorade.

Vitamin Water (some flavors worked better than others).

Water with a little bit of lemonade, OJ, or grapfruit juice added. I could not drink plain water even though normally I drink a LOT of water. I couldn't tolerate the acid (due to mouth sores) of juice alone, but flavoring my water with it worked. Room temp.

Cream of Wheat and oatmeal - yes these are considered as part of your liquids since they are made with quite a bit of liquid.

Soups - again part of your liquids. Potato soup was the only one I could eat the start of each cycle, but as I got closer to the next one I could eat tomoto and some others.

Drink from a plastic glass - or try a straw. It really can make a huge difference in that "metal" taste. I normally hate plastic, but I'm still using it because a cold glass container is hard for me - the cold sets off the neuropathy in my hands and I have trouble hanging on to it.

Consider drinking things that aren't part of your normal diet. This is just temporary. You might be surprised at some odd things that go down well. I was.

I got disconnected by home health on Saturdays. On Mondays I had to go in for a Neupogen shot, and most Mondays I got IV fluids also. Tuesdays I went for another shot, and sometimes got IV fluids those days too. It can make such a HUGE difference in how you feel. If you can stay hydrated energy levels are better, and so is nausea. If you are having trouble, consider going in for IV fluids. Do whatever it takes to stay hydrated.

Since I had the cold sensativity I had a hard time finding something that tasted good warm.

Pink lemonade was good:)

Big Blue (spin off of Big Red) tasted good to me to.

My docs said any fluid was good, dont worry to much about the nutritional value. Just drink.