Something I wish I'd known
Well this is my first blog, so a little background info. I'm 51, diagnosed with stage 2 invasive lobular BC due to my first routine mammogram followed by core biopsy the next week, in February. I had no symptoms or lumps so it was a shock! Lumpectomy w/ sentinel node biopsy done in March, no node involvement and they think they got it all. Yay! Then found out two weeks ago they were recommending I go through 4 rounds of TC chemo due to a high Ki67 index (>40). First chemo was a week ago and I'm so blinking grateful I've made it through that first week after infusion, it was gross. Radiation upcoming after chemo finishes.
So that's me.
Something I thought I'd mention was an experience I had this weekend. I really wanted a family activity together with my partner and our 2 children so we made homemade Chinese dumplings accompanied by a really nice lightly pickled salad made from cukes, gr onions and other veg. I love making this dinner, we all sit around the table making dumplings and talking, it meant a lot to me to do this while I'm feeling so down at the moment. Dressed the salad with soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, garlic, oil and diluted with water etc etc, added soy to the dumpling mixture. Ate the dumplings with hoisin sauce. I thought these were all fairly mild acceptable foods, avoided all the usual chili additions. Hahaha. About an hour after dinner I noticed this horrible furry feeling in my mouth, and pain like it was scalded...it got progressively worse despite everything I could think of to stop the burn lol. Babied my mouth along with gentle care over the next two days but it was misery!Thrush was setting in The Day After the Dumplings and I spent most of that day swishing baking soda and moaning. It seemed to have a top to tail effect, too...I'd had problems with a touch of constipation since the steroids but lets just say that was now resolved. I finally managed to get it all under control by last night, but I so wish I could have avoided that whole miserable experience!
Maybe the rest of you were aware of this, I'd read the recommended foods lists but somehow missed that we should avoid fermented foods! Like soy sauce, pickles and vinegar...while on chemo (suddenly struck me I reckon that would mean wine as well). I've still not seen this info on most of the lists I've looked at so I thought I'd throw it out there. Anyone else have this problem or a different sensitivity? It seemed like such a safe thing to eat at the time but it really almost tipped me over the edge, even noticed a significant rise in temperature (though not high enough to go to the ER), cramps, muscle aches and other symptoms. Such a small thing, such big consequences.
