Essiac durring chemo????

[meighank]

We are a 35 year old couple who just started dealing with colon cancer this past march.My husband was operated on April 11th for stage III colon cancer with 4/35 lymph nodes involved.Liver lungs and bones clear. Just finished round 4 of folfox6.... eight more rounds to go. He had some elevated liver tests at round 3, held chemo for a week and had a slight dosage reduction of the oxciliplatin.....Now blood tests normalizing and tolerated round 3 and now 4, has some numbness, fatique but overall doing great and those symptoms are really day 2-5 and we just take it easy.Anyway once his liver enzymes were high i started some research and keep hearing about essiac which is an herbal tea that can help fight fatique and some say fight cancer progression....we want to try it.Anybody out there trying it while on chemo and where are you getting it?????Very confusing as to who to get it from ............there is the original drug company, flor-essence, or a lady in canada who makes it and ships it??? so many suppliers and lots of conflicting advice.........anyone else out there doing this???????

[suzieh]

Sounds like your husband is doing well, way to go. I am 38yo cc Stage III, finished treatment in April. I would definately check with your oncologist before taking anything, especially homemade. My oncologist was very open to supplements, herbal specifically, but some of those supplements interfere with the chemo drugs. And the liver is working overtime x5 during treatment. I am sure some elevation may not be uncommon, but just be cautious. Lots of luck

[Andrea]

I have drank Essiac tea in the past. Here are some links:
http://www.essiacinfo.org/
http://www.essiac-resperin.com/en/index.html
There are a number of sites that come up when you search "Essiac Tea" on Google.com . Several different companys sell Essiac Tea. I've brewed my own with a mixture of the four Herbs. It's a long process. Now I order it premade. I haven't drank it during chemo yet. I recently resumed a FOLFOX with Avastin and Erbitux regimen for Stage IV colon cancer. I'm a 33 year old female, 2 year since dx. I asked my oncologist if I could drink Essiac during chemo and he said bring him the ingrediants. I keep forgetting due to chemo brain. I had already given him and his nurse a phamplet before. Guess they forgot. I'll let you know if I find anything out.
Andrea

[meighank]

Thanks for the information.He started round 5 yesterday and brought information regarding essiac and mushroom supplements and his oncologist said it was fine to take as long as he didn't drink gallons of it. We are going to start with flor-essence as it is pre-made and available at our local herbal path and it states to take 2ounces twice a day so I think we will start there but may skip the actual chemo days as we are hesitant to add anything more to his body those days.......not sure will experiment with how he feels. Also his liver tests have normalized, thank god. May be the slight dosage reduction of oxciliplatin but can't help notice he had started new chapters mushroom liver cleanse, who knows but we will continue as long as it works!!!! I completely agree you have to be very careful and it is hard to get exact information on what to do ..... of course we don't want to interfere with his chemo.......anyway thanks again and andrea i have read some of your other posts and hoping things are going ok????? Thinking of you and if i read correctly you have two little girls??? we have three ages 7,5 and 10 months........seems unfair they have to be so aware of the harsh realities of life at such a young age.......i know, my mom died of renal cell carcinoma and her illness was part of my life starting at age 13 so if you ever need to talk feel free.

[Andrea]

Hi Meighan (sorry if I spelled your name wrong),
How is the Essiac tea going? Thank goodness you only have to drink 1/4 of a cup at a time. It doesn't look or taste very appealing. I always had to plug my nose and drink it like a shot of tequila.
I hope you and your family are doing well. I will remember you in my prayers. Everything I have read says to be open and honest with your children about cancer. I take my girls to therapy once a week. I don't promise them I'll live forever but I do promise them they will be taken care of and we will see each other again in Heaven. I would like to talk to you about your own experience in losing a parent at such a young age. Please e-mail me when you have time.
Andrea

[ASTEPHENS33]

I went to a naturopath that my oncologist recommended. While I was on chemo (as the previous post alluded to), the naturopath indicated I had to be careful about drinking green tea (don't know about the other one you mentioned) to make sure it didn't interfere with the chemo. Now that I am post-chemo, I am drinking it and taking other supplements. I'd check with the oncologist before adding anything, but that being said it might be a good supplement, so let us know what you find out.