All great suggestions that I agree with:
I will give my little additions headings like Always Learning (�� always organized...not like me)..
The main title is "Giving Myself Love - in body, mind and spirit."
Exercise:
I took advantage of a program through the University of Calgary called Excel Learning which is designed especially for cancer patients. You can do it online via zoom which makes it really easy on you - if you're not feeling great, you don't have to get dressed and go somewhere - and even if you're feeling lazy...it's just so easy because its in your house, that you will tend to do it. They also customize it to what level you feel at. For my first occurrence I did it at the "active" level..but second occurrence when chemo was much harder on me..I sometimes did the sitting level. But I always felt the better for doing something for my body. It's important to try not to let your muscles atrophy too much, and it helps your system function and build up again.
I also walked - being outside in the fresh air does wonders for a person. Walk to the end of the block..walk around the block..if you feel up to it, around the lake (for me that 4.2 km)...make sure you hear the birds and say hi to the trees and look at how wonderfully they are formed and perhaps bending to say hello to you.
Tell yourself: I love you my body.
Nutrition:
I love food and like to eat well. I never really ate what they brought around on the volunteer carts because it was a lot of cookies and sugar, but I learned to bring snacks or lunch. As well, I brought a water bottle with whatever I decided to bring or had tea from the cart. I never suffered from nausea, but usually had a great appetite for lunch or supper after chemo due to all the steroids!
I used to do a lot of prepping and freezing of soups and dinners in the week before the next chemo. One of my sisters would come down and basically they didn't have to do much except clean up after eating which I loved because I am normally messy and I loved having the clean kitchen lol.
After my first recurrence, I didn't do so well. I was okay sitting, but when I tried to stand and do food prep and stuff I would get out of breath easily...(my hemoglobin etc. recovery wasn't so great)...so my sister did more cooking.
My cooking is more complex than hers but it worked out fine.
I like to incorporate more beans and legumes or if I have a salad..I have more vegetables. I use vegetarian and vegan and Indian cookbooks, but I'm not vegan..so I often add meat as well.
Fiber is helpful to me...but then you gotta watch if it's doing good by you or you need to back off as some people can attest to.
Fasting: with respect to fasting - I have a friend who suggested that I fast 1 or 2 days before, the day of and a day after - so that the cancer doesn't have any food and is weakened and the chemo can really go to town - and supposedly recovery is better
I tried fasting for One day..and on the day of chemo I caved and ate something because I felt so horrible already from not eating that long....So that wasn't a route for me. I am a person whose body wants breakfast, lunch and supper...and I'll nosedive when I don't get fed.
I try now to reduce carbs a bit more but I could never be that strict with myself. and I eat supper by 5 to try and have a longer period of "no food".
Constipation:
I never suffered from nausea, but did suffer from stomach pain sometimes, as well as constipation (almost all medications can cause me to have constipation).
I think Restorolax is a necessity for all chemo patients! even though a part of me hates taking in what I call plastic. I also had senna tablets with stool softener. I would take Restorolax, and if I didn't go the next day then I would take 2 laxatives...and so on and so forth.
Another thing that is helpful is taking Magnesium powder at night with h20. It acts as a stool softener as well. Take your Restorolax earlier...
I have had terrible experience this go round with constipation where I ended up in ER and had to drink the drink. Restorlax, laxatives suppositorys..nothing had worked. Then I backed off on the fiber and mostly had fluid with rice etc.
but honestly = normally for me, the more beans, legumes and vegetables the better.
Meditation:
A friend of mine told me about the APP Insight Medition which is Free...so I utilized that a lot. In fact, I still throw something on every night. You can customize it to whatever you want to focus on. They have some that are on healing, some for deep sleep, some for digestion, you name it. Some with affirmations (gratitude, self love etc.). Another one which I found VERY useful when going through chemotherapy is: