Patients' Perspectives
Getting Your Gut Back
This document is NOT intended to provide you with medical
advice. You should consult qualified practioners in your area for such
information.
In this essay, one patient describes her experience from diarrhea following
her high-dose chemotherapy.
What are the gastrointestinal problems?
Because most patients undergoing high-dose chemotherapy (HDC) are given
non-absorbing antibiotics as part of their treatment, these patients often
experience diarrhea after their white counts and other hematological criteria
have recovered sufficiently to allow the patient to be released to home
from the HDC program. Additionally, some patients may experience gastrointestinal
neuropathy which is not addressed in this essay.
How one patient did it
When I was released from the hospital, I was eating and keeping my food
down, but I still had bouts of diarrhea. I mentioned this in passing one
day while I was talking to my cousin, who is a surgeon. She asked whether
I was allowed to have dairy products. When my answer was yes, she described
the effect of the antibiotics to me. Then, she suggested that I try eating
yogurt with active culture as a way to begin restoring my normal
gastrointestinal bacteria, not to mention function!
In spite of the fact that I generally hate all pudding-like food, I
headed for the supermarket and found a custard yogurt with active culture.
I bought two and ate one that morning. By afternoon, the diarrhea had slowed
down. I ate the other with my dinner. By the following morning, the diarrhea
had completely stopped.
Where to find out more about:
Gastrointestinal side effects
More information can be found at the
National
Cancer Institute's web site.
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The Webmaster
or answer our very short survey.
Legal stuff
None of the essays entitled Patients' Perspectives is
intended to provide medical, legal, or psycho-social advice. For those
kinds of information, you should contact qualified practictioners in your
local area. We do intend to convey our members' experiences with the various
procedures involved in cancer treatment and the questions we have received.
Copyright 2005 You Are Not Alone
Most recent update: 04 Oct 2005 22:06
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