Thanks to a heads up by rp1954 i have been reading up on his monumental journey with her partner and also the dangers of folate with 5FU and how it drastically cuts the potency of the chemo https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27175995 and the aforementioned toxicity. I have read through many of the forum posts about folic acid and it seems avoiding folic will be a must (easier said than done it seems since it seems here in the UK folic acid is added to everything even my mums fortisips)
What I have learnt so far is folic acid is water soluble and eliminated from the body quite quickly without being stored so is it safe to assume my mum who will be starting FOLFIRI soon should avoid folates at all costs a day or two before her infusion, the 2 days her pump is going and then she is OK to add some modest folate ie greens / fruit / cereals to her diet again as the 5FU will have been eliminated from her body? Or should she refrain from folic acid / folates for additional time after the chemo is finished?
Her diet is quite high in fruit and veg and cereals at the moment, any ideas on folate-free meals / snacks we can feed her up on during her chemo weeks or healthy high cal foods? As I mentioned in my previous post her onc merely said no grapefuit, wasnt keen on supplements but didnt really say no (typical British by the book onc) just said she can eat what she want but i have read other oncs are perfectly OK with glutamine to potentially reduce chemo symptoms. Does anyone have experience to share with glutamine supplementation during chemo and if it works and what their oncs said?
Do people recommend mushroom extract and if so at what doses did you find they helped ? I also have her on turkey tail, maitake and reishi after reading in multiple sources and pubmed studies Asian countries have used them for decades as adjutant therapy for chemo with promising result so does anyone have positive / negative experience with mushroom extracts? I am slightly concerned the reishi which I recently started her on has caused some stomach pain / nausea although these bouts coincided with her taking laxido laxative which apparently lists such as a side effect, i have also read these side effects can be temporary with reishi
I am aware of cimetidine although the hospital has her on ranitidine, would it be worth buying cimetidine or asking for cimetidine or is ranitidine marginally superior as potentially suggested in this study? https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15573918 My guts say keep up on the ranitidine but as I have said this is all very fresh to me and I am learning as I go
Thanks once again to all the knowledgable angels in the forum. Her cancer is quite serious so we dont want to fluff the folfiri and are in very uncharted territory at the moment and due to our health care can't change our onc for an integrated treatment one or one willing to move outside of the NHS checklist. Her oncologist is competent just uncommunicative regarding my diet / supplement questions, an upper and lower GI specialist and we are at a big hospital here in the West Mids for any brits so unless we try for another hospital which would be dangerous we are stuck with what we have which while OK for now i admit I trust the onc in regards to chemo choice / surgery options but the advice in this forum regarding supplementary