On 6/25/2009
cynthia96 wrote:
Hi. I am a 13 year old girl who has a 65 year old grandpa who was diagnosed with stage III (3) esophageal cancer. At the moment he is on and off with doing well in the situation he is in. Before,he weighed around 185 and sadly,he is down to 139. Every time he eats he seems to throw it up,but at times he can keep it down. He drinks ensure and tries to eat mashed foods,but he never feels like eating,too. He also produces a lot of phlegm (Not sure if that's normal.). He has had 4 treatments of chemotherapy so far. I have a few questions of his cancer to ask.
--Should he get the tubing? We believe he should,but he is too stubborn to get it.
--What else should we be able to give him? Some that he will not throw up.
--How long will it take for him to start eating better and holding the food down better?
Thank you,and god bless.
Wow, for a 13 yo, you sounded very caring and mature....
1. He should get a Feeding Tube, without proper nourishment he wont able to fight for the chemo toxicity in the long run.
2. Phlegm could due to infection and pneumonia, pls ask dr to let him try some breathing treatment to clear up those mucus. Does he get any ct scan to find out his oropharynx airway is close or not due to lesion tumor yet??? A surgery could b the answer if there was one presented! or any complication will be assess in the long run ie trache if he develops a difficulty of breathing.
3. When he eats make sure use a plastic spoon / fork. The metal react with chemo drug and make food more metally taste, bitter, etc... Also, pls let him eat a lot of blackberry, rashberry, blueberry and greentea ( steep the bag for just 5 minutes and remove, drink hot greantea **matcha ingredient brand at smartNfinal store** with some fresh ginger slice blend in - pls consume within an hr when you make the tea) to help your grandpa to improve his immune system as those got high level of antioxident. Anything berry family would help along with dark red / purple food type.
4. Ask the Dx to give him some neaseau drugs as due to Chemo cause. Sometimes those need to take in advance prior the chemo day to prevent this symptom. My mom took in advance prior chemo infusion so she never experienced this. If the first one did not work ask the dr to give other brands until find the one it works for your grandpa.
5. The week he got chemo he will have a hard time of eating. Perhaps making some Salmon (fish/chicken) chowder for him as following instead the non-nutrient smash potato:
grill the fish / chicken, steam briefly (do not over cook, the green and crunchy the better, or it will loose the antioxident ingredients) the baby brocolie/ yellow or red bell pepper only, couple maitake / shitake mushroom (get those at Healthy foodstore as at traderjoe), a few slice of dark red onion, 1 slice of cheese, half of purple potatoe, some chicken broth blend it at med size, some cilantro to improve the overall taste.
You can also try some curcumin spice and ginger when you cook the food for him, it coudl help to improve his appetite
Those 2 weeks that he does not have chemo, he needs to eat a lot to make up for the wk he got chemo. This could last for a while even after finishing chemo.
Make sure he is cover up his nose when he is out in the crowd, he should try to avoid to contract any flu / cold for a pneumonia contract.
your grandpa will also need to have Shingles Shot (pneumonia/flu shot too) to prevent shingle nerve pain in the long run. He will need to consume extra Vit b, folic acid, etc to prevent future neuropathy - check out caring.com for neuropathy care or search in this forum that I posted a while ago that article.
Best wishes,
Victoria