Today I had my monthly appointment with my oncologist.

My bloods came back with good results my white blood cell count was slightly higher than last cycle but my platelets were slightly down from 114 to 111.

All that broccoli, kiwi fruit and papaya I ate might have helped.

This means I will start my 16th cycle of double chemotherapy on Monday. Jeez I can’t wait for the nausea and tiredness.

It looks like my bone marrow is starting to struggle so looks like I am going to have to go from 5 /23 day cycles to 5/30 day cycles to give it an extra week.

If anyone has any questions about my journey don’t hesitate to ask

 

Colin

 

3 Comments
Pina
Visitor

thanks very much for sharing your story Colin - I found it very helpful.  My mother has been diagnosed with GBM, she's had surgery and will start radiotheraphy and chemotherapy next week.  I know it's going to be a tough road ... but ... it is what it is.......you mentioned some specific foods - do you reckon it helps to follow a particular diet, or eat more of a particular type of food?  She's generally a healthy person and follows a pretty good diet.  Thanks

Felix34
Contributor

Hi Pina,

No problems with sharing my story and if you ever have any questions don’t hesitate to ask.

One of the hardest periods I went through was the radiotherapy/chemotherapy as it caused a lot of edema (swelling) on the brain. This caused me to have focal seizures( body twitching). They kept on putting my steroid up to try and control the seizures, the steroids got up to 16 mg as the oncologist didn’t know what drugs to put me on. Once I got a neurologist on board he fixed this problem.

At the end of the treatment I had a fall at home and ended up back in hospital, a MRI was performed and it showed the tumour had already returned after 12 weeks.

My suggestion is you can never ask to many questions and if you notice a  change with your mum in mobility, speech,  mood swings or even just the way she is normally I would get it checked out.

With the diet side  know it’s not going to cure my GBM but if it gives me more time I will take it.

I didn’t change anything until about 9 months ago, my platelets dropped down to 108 ( my chemo oncologist doesn’t want them below 100) so I started eating foods high in omega3 fatty acids and leafy greens such as salmon, tuna, avocado and spinach. My platelets then went up into the 140’s for 6 months but have dropped back down to 111last blood count.

My bloods 2 months ago came back with a very low white blood cell count( first time these had dropped ) so I started having a diet high in vitamin C, this consisted of broccoli, brussel sprouts, kiwi fruit and papaya. My white blood cell rose the next cycle.

 

Everyone is different, they will tolerate the disease differently, the side effects differently,

My side effects are tolerable with slight nausea and tiredness, but I don’t look forward to it.

 

like I said any questions please ask.

take care

Colin

 

Pina
Visitor

thank you for taking the time to write, Colin.  I appreciate your advice and I wish you well in the next phase of your treatment.  

 

Warm regards

 

Leigh 

(Pina is just the email name as mine was taken)

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