Healthy Eating: Living with Recurrent Cancer
Facing Diet and Nutrition Setbacks: Living with Recurrent Ovarian Cancer
As a health and fitness professional, having a healthy diet and staying well-informed about nutrition is crucial to my work and personal life. My cancer illness makes this even more essential to keeping me alive and well.
Before cancer, I stayed informed about diet and nutrition by relying on several well regarded resources that published evidence based findings. As a matter of fact, many years before kale, the Mediterrean diet, and eating a plant based diet became fashionable, I was following these dietary choices. I was never swayed by any new diet fads that made false statements about weight loss or curing a health condition.
I stayed away from processed foods, read food labels, maintained a balanced diet, lived an active live, and cooked most of the foods I ate. I was energetic, physically strong and developed diet plans for my clients. I was an example of optimal health, fitness, and wellness.
My cancer diagnosis was shocking for this and other reasons. But I’ve learned to accept the things I cannot change and try to change the ones I can within my power. My diet has become one of the things I’ve had to accept.
While I was recovering from ovarian cancer surgery, I discovered the Wahl’s diet, written by a medical doctor, who battled her multiple sclerosis illness and discovered this special diet based on a Paleolithic lifestyle, similar to the one our forefathers had hundreds of years ago. She is also the founder of several clinics that use her programs and teachings to help patients dealing with MS and other illnesses.
I followed her diet and lifestyle recommendations and owe a lot to her for the work she did to help so many of us manage our illness. I hope it will help you too if you are struggling to find answers. Please see references at end of this Blog about the Wahl’s diet and other diet and nutrition resources.
During the eleven years that I’ve lived with my cancer illness there have been many health challenges and setbacks. I’ve had seven recurrences, fourteen different lines of chemotherapy treatments, and another intense surgery to remove cancer tumors, which unfortunately, was not successful. As a result, my body has taken quite a toll, especially my digestive system, which is quite close to the part of my abdomen where I have the recurrent cancer tumors.
Things started to change quickly about six years ago, when my treatments stopped working and new ones had to be started. Each recurrence brought new side effects and intensified the complications of having cancer so close to my intestines. I was lucky up this point as I could still maintain a balanced diet consisting of vegetables, nuts, fruits, and most proteins. I still had many diet and nutrition options that I could enjoy and stay healthy and strong.
Three years ago, I started to develop significant abdominal issues and was told by my medical team that it was cancer-related. The recurrences and treatments were taking their toll on my body and digestive system.
My ovarian cancer is in the peritoneal cavity, part of the abdomen, and close to my intestines.
It was hard to accept what was responsible for the changes in my body’s inability to process fibrous foods and other foods.
It became increasingly difficult to find foods I could tolerate that were nutrient-dense.
My condition worsened, and I ended up in the hospital. I had developed a stomach blockage. They had me on a liquid diet and soft foods – gelatin and smoothies.
I was miserable and suffering. I refused to take the powerful pain medications they offered.
My system had shut down. I couldn’t digest any fiber, protein, and most fats, and told to avoid vegetables with skin or seeds, turkey and steak.
What was I suppose to eat? I was frustrated and distraught, and my weight loss was very noticeable.
My height is 5’2” and I was now 88 lbs. I had lost 26 lbs. I was scary to look at and extremely emaciated.
Things were rough, and my nutritionist and medical team didn’t offer any immediate solution, but eventually, they did. Their only recommendation was to try a protein drink, Ensure, which I dislike and never tried.
I was trying my best to cope but failed until I realized I didn’t want to give up and relied on my resilience, determination, and knowledge to make some progress.
People’s advice was unhelpful even if it meant well. I felt that they didn’t understand what was happening.
The complications got worse, and I was now having chronic stomach cramps and spasms, and my energy was low.
I eventually discovered that I could tolerate chicken lo mien, ramen with miso, beef and pork broth, and pasta with cream sauce without garlic, onion, celery, or scallion. This was saving my life.
At least I was getting carbohydrates, protein, fats, and fluids from real food. It was a daily ongoing struggle to figure out what I could eat. Any attempt proved futile.
Although the sodium in these foods was typically high, I was lucky not to have sodium restrictions, so I was happy with this.
Some sodium was likely beneficial because it replaced the electrolytes I lost and needed to stay balanced.
I was lucky to not feel light headed or nauseous.
In spite of everything, I continued to exercise, and connect with nature. I am also grateful to live close to Central Park.
I attribute my strength to advocate for myself, staying fit, to my training and experience, and the spiritual support of my twelve-step group.
Nevertheless, it was an agonizing experience and one I could easily have lived without. I continued to lose more weight, feeling demoralized, and fed up with negativity.
I wonder how I would react to someone going through such a horrific time.
Please check out the website and other Blogs to learn more.
Staying hydrated was also becoming a problem. It was hard to drink any fluids, including water. The only fluid I could take in was cranberry juice.
I was literally starving to death and longed to feel nourished and fortified – both physically and emotionally.
My oncologist eventually stopped the chemo I was on, which wasn’t working, and switched me to a different one, that seems to work.
Could I have done anything sooner about this? I really don’t know the answer, but had to rely on her expertise.
I slowly started to improve with the new treatment and an abdomen stent adjustment.
My weight increased and I started to feel better, but no sooner had another relapse.
As luck would have it, the stent became blocked. It was my worst nightmare. I was in agony, in and out of the ER and being admitted to the hospital again. The recommendation was to go on another liquid diet, then soft foods.
For two months, the suffering was unbearable. I had lost my lust for life, had such low energy, and couldn’t keep up with the fast pace lifestyle I was accustomed to.
My weight loss was shocking and people did not understand the cause.
I forced myself to eat but that became impossible and went weeks without a proper meal. It was becoming extremely difficult to live this way.
Except for being able to tolerate lo mien and ramen, I was literally starving to death. Thanks to whoever invented noodles.
Those were the only foods I could digest fairly comfortably. I even imagined having to live the rest of my life this way.
Thanks to my oncologist, the new treatment started working and with the stent adjustment, the blockage cleared up. I was now able to eat eggs, other dairy foods, and some seafood.
I realized that my metabolism had significantly changed and although I was eating more, the scale wasn’t showing any weight gain or loss.
The changes have been remarkable and I am now able to eat high quality nutrient-dense foods. I still have difficulty digesting fiber, in particular green leafy vegetables such as kale and spinach.
Takeaways:
Advocate for yourself, no matter what
Never give up
Find your inner strength, no matter what adversities you face, whether it’s your diet or something else that’s impacting your quality of life
Learn to accept and face the challenges
Seek the support of people you trust
Never stop caring for yourself
Express your feelings and emotions
Listen to your own voice
Rely on something you believe in that gives you joy
Live in the moment
Find gratitude under any circumstance
Avoid comparing and despairing, everyone is on their own journey
Diet & Nutrition Resources I recommend:
Wahl’s protocol information ://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39385461/