boxhill wrote:TinaFish, you certainly are having more of a reaction than I did. I have an ongoing issue with diarrhea because of metformin, and there is no doubt it was worse when I was on chemo, but not nearly as bad as yours, and I though *I* was the Queen of loose stools. And I had no cramping.
So no, I don't think you are being a big baby.
If you were having a kind of cleaning out every morning, after which things calmed down, that would be one thing. And often has to do with drinking coffee. But it sounds as if you are going 24/7.
I'd try taking the immodium as instructed, except ignoring the daily limits. Take two after a loose stool. If you have another loose stool soon after, take another. And so on. See if you can achieve some periods of bowel peace. With the caveat that the colon removes liquid, and it is to be expected that when you have less of it, stools will be looser. But you can tell the difference between that and diarrhea.
I would also pay attention to what you are eating. I found that if I ate a salad the lettuce would appear in tiny recognizable pieces within 2 hours. Same thing with blueberries, for example. Beans, OMG. You may need to go easy on fiber for a while.
I would be inclined to avoid dosing myself with a bunch of different things at once. You don't want to find yourself rebounding between constipation and diarrhea.
Good luck.
boxhill wrote:TinaFish, you certainly are having more of a reaction than I did. I have an ongoing issue with diarrhea because of metformin, and there is no doubt it was worse when I was on chemo, but not nearly as bad as yours, and I though *I* was the Queen of loose stools. And I had no cramping.
So no, I don't think you are being a big baby.
If you were having a kind of cleaning out every morning, after which things calmed down, that would be one thing. And often has to do with drinking coffee. But it sounds as if you are going 24/7.
I'd try taking the immodium as instructed, except ignoring the daily limits. Take two after a loose stool. If you have another loose stool soon after, take another. And so on. See if you can achieve some periods of bowel peace. With the caveat that the colon removes liquid, and it is to be expected that when you have less of it, stools will be looser. But you can tell the difference between that and diarrhea.
I would also pay attention to what you are eating. I found that if I ate a salad the lettuce would appear in tiny recognizable pieces within 2 hours. Same thing with blueberries, for example. Beans, OMG. You may need to go easy on fiber for a while.
I would be inclined to avoid dosing myself with a bunch of different things at once. You don't want to find yourself rebounding between constipation and diarrhea.
Good luck.
TinaFish wrote:Still dealing with this. Yesterday and today consisted of being on the toilet every 30 minutes so that a small amount of poop/diarrhea could come out. The stomach cramps are horrible and today I finally got the courage to take some Imodium and some Pepto pills. I don't know if I can stop the cramping, but it would be nice to not be on the toilet so often. By some miracle, I slept through the night last night instead of being kept awake by this horrible condition.
Does anyone else have advice? Is this a common reaction to chemo??
Pyro wrote:TinaFish wrote:Still dealing with this. Yesterday and today consisted of being on the toilet every 30 minutes so that a small amount of poop/diarrhea could come out. The stomach cramps are horrible and today I finally got the courage to take some Imodium and some Pepto pills. I don't know if I can stop the cramping, but it would be nice to not be on the toilet so often. By some miracle, I slept through the night last night instead of being kept awake by this horrible condition.
Does anyone else have advice? Is this a common reaction to chemo??
I have something similar, I think it’s the premeds for the chemo, it’s always worse a couple days after infusions. I usually feel better after a good bowel movement, miralax and senna are my go to, magnesium citrate if it’s been 3 days with no movement.
boxhill wrote:If you are having frequent loose stools where you have to dash to the toilet and it just pours out, you definitely have diarrhea and may need immodimum.
If you feel bloated and gassy and what comes out is more or less normal, or harder, but what you see on the paper is loosish or mucousy, then you may be constipated. IMHO, what appears on the paper is unimportant compared to what appears in the bowl. I would cut out the immodium, take a GeriKot (natural senna laxative same as Sennocot) and a Ducosate sodium (same as Golace) stool softener, drink a lot of water, and wait.
Meanwhile, keep your diet on the bland side for a few days so that--one hopes--you can get things kind of evened out. If you get constipated, you are likely to suffer some degree of what they call rebound diarrhea.
A lot of people have constipation right after an infusion because the premeds tend to cause it. Some people find that taking the GeriKot and Ducosate that night, and maybe the next night, helps ward it off. You should be drinking a lot of fluid whole on the pump anyway.
boxhill wrote:... drink a lot of water, and wait.
... You should be drinking a lot of fluid ...
Jacques wrote:boxhill wrote:... drink a lot of water, and wait.
... You should be drinking a lot of fluid ...
If you are losing a lot of fluid by diarrhea, then it is very, very important to drink a lot of fluids in order to maintain proper electrolyte balance. You may even need to supplement drinking water with oral rehydration salts in order to replenish the lost electrolytes.
If your electrolytes become very unbalanced it can then lead to kidney problems, like painful kidney stones or bladder stones.
TinaFish wrote:Jacques wrote:boxhill wrote:... drink a lot of water, and wait.
... You should be drinking a lot of fluid ...
If you are losing a lot of fluid by diarrhea, then it is very, very important to drink a lot of fluids in order to maintain proper electrolyte balance. You may even need to supplement drinking water with oral rehydration salts in order to replenish the lost electrolytes.
If your electrolytes become very unbalanced it can then lead to kidney problems, like painful kidney stones or bladder stones.
Yes, the grocery store had a special on Gatorade. Every day, I drink one 32oz bottle of Gatorade, then fill it with water once it's empty, then drink the water. How weird is it that all my life, I have never had to drink that much? My best guess is that on a typical day, I drank maybe 16 oz. That's all! And it wasn't water that I was drinking; it was Pepsi! Lol!
NHMike wrote:TinaFish wrote:Jacques wrote:If you are losing a lot of fluid by diarrhea, then it is very, very important to drink a lot of fluids in order to maintain proper electrolyte balance. You may even need to supplement drinking water with oral rehydration salts in order to replenish the lost electrolytes.
If your electrolytes become very unbalanced it can then lead to kidney problems, like painful kidney stones or bladder stones.
Yes, the grocery store had a special on Gatorade. Every day, I drink one 32oz bottle of Gatorade, then fill it with water once it's empty, then drink the water. How weird is it that all my life, I have never had to drink that much? My best guess is that on a typical day, I drank maybe 16 oz. That's all! And it wasn't water that I was drinking; it was Pepsi! Lol!
I use Nuun tablets - these are electrolyte tablets that you dissolve in water. The downside of Gatorade (outside of the calorie-free versions) is the sugars and calories.
TinaFish wrote:
Yep, after losing 15 lbs in the past couple months, I got scared. I figured I could use the calories. Of course we all know sugar is bad, my oncologist said it doesn't matter what you eat when it comes to cancer. Of course we've all heard "sugar feeds cancer" and a lot of the cancer websites say that's not really true; that everything turns into sugar in the long run (except protein). IDK, it's just so difficult for me to figure out any kind of diet plan right now, when I struggle just to force myself to eat every day. Eating used to be such a joy for me. Nowadays, I struggle to think of something to eat that doesn't turn me off. And after I do eat it, I worry how it will effect my digestive system. If I can get a good 1500 calories a day into myself from any kind of sustenance, then I'm lucky.
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