The PT came today to assess what kind of therapy Carol would need to build her strength. In the process, I asked her about the risers you can buy to put on the toilet to make it easier to get up. She mentioned a couple of good products, then asked if I had a potty chair. I told her I did, so she went and looked at it and said to just put it over the toilet. It has adjustable legs and arm rails.
It was actually made to do that, with a splash shield and everything. Problem solved. Now why didn't I think of that?

I call our rise the throne. My husband had hip replacement surgery and before he could come home we had to get it. I am not the tallest person in the world and when I have to use it, my feet don't touch the floor. LOL

Swinging your feet on the toilet! HA!

I needed a good laugh. Thank you for brightening my day. It was easier to adjust rather them removing them. Even though they are cleaned daily I have this compulsion that if the throne is off, it needs to be cleaned. LOL

Thing that is useful is a shower chair (unless yours has one built in) and also a bed rail to use to pull up on..it sure helps makes it easier to get out of bed.
Please let Carol know I'm thinking about her..take care of yourself too .

...it's a transfer bench, where she can just sit down and swing her legs over and pull the curtain....one end is in the tub and the other is outside the tub. It also does have the rail she can lean back on and use for support. That's about the only way I could get her a shower, at home. Thinking about a seat lift chair now.

What I Wish I'd Known Before Beginning Chemotherapy

http://health.msn.com/health-topics/cancer/what-i-wish-id-known-before-beginning-chemotherapy


1. It's different for everybody.


Many cancer patients cited this as the most important thing they wanted others to know. "Don't listen to the horror stories!" counseled one colon cancer patient. "There's always someone telling you how sick or exhausted they were, but none of that happened to me, and I wish I hadn't been so scared."

Rule number one, then, is to take scare stories with a grain of salt, or at least a dash of skepticism. Some people do suffer terrible nausea, excruciating pain, or crushing fatigue. But there are just as many cancer patients who said they didn't experience these side effects, or who experience them only minimally. Still others said they experienced most of the "typical" symptoms but didn't find them as troubling as they expected. And of, course, there are some for whom the treatment is much more debilitating than they ever thought possible, and no one else's experience prepared them for that, either. Bottom line: It's different for everyone.

2. Emotional reactions are very personal—and by no means universal.


Even a symptom or side effect that's extremely common may be experienced very differently from one person to the next. "I'm a huge foodie -- I love to cook, I love to eat, and good food has always been a big part of my life," said one lung cancer patient. "So when chemotherapy made me lose my sense of taste, that was so traumatic for me; it made me feel like a different person." Others find the taste changes that come with cancer treatment a minor inconvenience.


There are ten total. I thought this may be a good reference for people facing chemo for the first time.

I remember getting the mouth sores. I lived on Ensure for weeks and have never been so miserable in my life. They are not supposed to get bigger than a dime. I had a couple of quarter sized ones.

It described almost to a tee what Carol has been thru the last three weeks. It talked about the nadir, or low point of the cycle when WBC and platelets are at their lowest, and that the next round of chemo would not be administered if the counts had not started to recover after passing the nadir.
So we went to the hospital for bloodwork again today, the fourth day out of the last six. I'm thinkin this doctor must own some serious stock in this hospital as much as she has us going there. But then I read that about the nadir and I understand why she was doing it, she was looking to see if Carol had passed the nadir and had started to produce WBCs and platelets again......which in fact, she has! HEr platelets were at 39,000 Tues and up to 60,000 today, a sign that she has turned the corner. Still low, but headed in the right direction. I read that it took 3-4 weeks for levels to return to normal. It hasn't been three weeks yet, but it will be Saturday. So she is basically "on schedule" to recover.

I feel a little better today knowing this is the norm and not an exception. I know you guys told me she would get better, but what you see is what you are experiencing at the moment, and I what I was seeing wasn't good...at all! She is still weak, but getting stronger and eating more. She is on an exercise schedule now and we start diuretics in the morning to help alleviate the ascites and edema problems that are exacerbating things. Chemo now scheduled for Tuesday, but no carboplatin. Taxol, and maybe something else. Don't know what's coming next.......but I'm holdin on!

Tell Carol we are all thinking of her.

You have helped me quite a bit.

The more information we have the better we are. Are you feeling ok?

I battle between extreme hot flashes, nausea & pain. The pain being worse of the three. I feel as if someone is slowly pouring cement into my joints. lol What an unpleasant thought.

I see my oncologist Wednesday. I'm thinking positive things.

I am just getting over an EColi infection. I hope you hear nothing but good news.

That is a horrible infection to have, especially when your body is already compromised. It is much tougher to recover quickly. How in the world did that happen?

After chemo I don't run fevers. I don't care how sick I am, my temp is 97.5. I got really sick right before Halloween and kept going to the doctor. I would get medication and feel a little better and then in a few days after I completed it I would start feeling awful again. We don't usually eat fast food and I remember getting Chinese food-other than that I don't know.

The RN that sees Carol said drinking through a straw causes gas and that chewing gum also causes gas, so those might be something one would avoid if having gas problems.

Does anyone have a source of or some favorite recipes they can share? Tons online but I prefer something someone has tried and used and has known success with.

I need a way to get some easy to prepare and drinkable calories in me for those times when real food is just not an option. Ensure causes extreme gastric distress for me (so I avoid it if at all possible), otherwise the taste is ok and I like it.

I do like and can tolerate prepared protein powders that you can mix with water and other ingredients to make smoothies. They can be whey based, rice based or made from some other source but taste is important. A lot of them are just plain horrible and all of them are fairly expensive.

Suggestions welcome!

using that as a semi guide. There's also a recipe book entitled "I can't eat alot" which fits my wife to a tee. Today was a meeting with the dietician and she recommended the boost and ensure drinks along with gatorade or another electrolyte replacement drink of our choice. She pretty much stressed allowing her to eat as many small meals or whatever she wants as the day progresses instead of eating three larger meals.

Today it was, one slice of buttered whole wheat toast for breakfast, half an ensure vanilla drink at 10 a.m,, greek yogurt at lunch,
the rest of the ensure at around 2, and quartered boiled potatos with cheese and butter for supper.

Yesterday it was kale/sausage/bean and tomato stew for supper. I made too much and will eat it for the next day at lunch and whenever. The day meals were pretty much the same.

Nanc has lost 18 lbs since August 10 and I need to get her to beef up a bit over the next two months (eight weeks and two days to be exact)

This place, DU, has been an immense help to me. If I can add anything or answer any questions please feel free. I don't know much and am learning new words and methods every day.

All of you, take good care. I care for you all.