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Recipes and advice for Cancer patients


NormanH
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Thanks, Andy.  TBH, black, green, I just don't fancy it!!!

A favourite recipe seems to be "kale crisps" and, by all accounts, it is delicious.  Might buy a tiny, tiny amount next market day and see if I can eat it.

Won't be zapping it though.....I don't think that my delicate appetite can cope with green sludge[:'(]

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The crisps are good. Sprinkle with sesame seeds a little olive oil and sesame oil. Cook in a hot oven until crisp. Not sure what nutritional value is left though.

I too am unsure about green sludge, but Kales can be cooked (not stewed) like cabbage. 5 mins max in boiling water, drain, add butter and sprinkle with Calvi (caraway) - whole or ground.

Also finely chopped (with or without the stalk to taste or according to your teeth and their ability to chew) and added to green salads.

Cooked with beans (Flagelot blanc, butter beans or similar) and tomatoes.

Much under rated
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[quote user="mint"]Thanks, Andy.  TBH, black, green, I just don't fancy it!!!

A favourite recipe seems to be "kale crisps" and, by all accounts, it is delicious.  Might buy a tiny, tiny amount next market day and see if I can eat it.

Won't be zapping it though.....I don't think that my delicate appetite can cope with green sludge[:'(]

[/quote]

Here's a thought, I have been drinking the green smoothy almost every day for nearly two years, is that a feet I could have ever imagined? No.  Does it taste like kale? No. Is it hard to digest once it's been blitzed in the nutriblaster, No. Other slower and less powerful blenders not specifically for the job I agree could mean disaster on the taste and digestibility.

It tastes of banana and kiwi fruit. Not just stuck with that there is a good book which I have forgotten the name of but will look up that has lots of great recipes for raw drinks.

I think you both answered your question of how much nutrition is left after cooking, why bother cooking it if it is at all unpalatable as you have just cooked out the reason to eat it in the first place, nutrition.

These nutrition blenders are way better than a standard model as they rip apart seeds like chia and linseed which would not happen in a normal kitchen blender making it impossible to enjoy and I do.

Not in anyway scientific but my cholesterol used to be high 6's  my last test 3.74 and the only difference in my diet is the raw smoothies.

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TP, I do believe you have convinced me[:)]

Having had back-to-back infections in the last few weeks, I have been feeling extremely tired and not up to doing anything.

I didn't have kale, nevermind a nutribullet, but I made up a drink with oatmeal milk, spinach, a pear, a spoonful of ground almonds and some honey.  Blitzed with my stick blender and, you are right, it didn't taste bad at all.

I could feel a urinary infection coming on so I downed the drink and then the symptoms receded and by the afternoon I felt almost normal.

I did look at a blender of the type you describe in Leclerc and, at 45 eruros, it looks like it will do the job.  Not sure I want yet another gadget, however.  It seems that as long as I cut up the fruit, etc finely, my blender does the job well enough.  As I don't even know what chia seeds are and what they are good for, I think I will continue as at present.

You have given me the incentive and the ideas.  With my next lot of sprouts, I shall be able to include some of those in the drinks.  In fact, I will be sure to have one of these drinks on the morning of my next chemo.

Thought you'd like to know your advice has fallen on fertile ground!  

 

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Brave lady mint going for the green sludge, all joking apart I think there must be something in raw nutrition it certainly helps Théière, and if it builds you up whilst on chemo, then go for it. I am thinking about getting one myself, but do not like buying something that I perceive to be trendy, although as Théière has said the Nutribullet does the business. I have been looking at Breville blenders that are meant to do the same thing, and a Breville VBL136 has four and a half stars out of 5 on UK amazon for £19.00. The reviews state that it will cope with ice and frozen vegetables, not sure about seeds, didn't see anything about them in the reviews.

Really wishing you all the best with your chemo sessions mint, not having had to go through them myself, I can only imagine how horrible they must be. Hang on in there, keep 'sprouting' and drinking the green sludge, this surely will help build you up and make the chemo more tolerable.

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Grecian, you can't imagine the blessedness of having a cool, soothing drink when your mouth is full of ulcers, your lips are splitting at the corners and your tongue resembles a piece of raw liver.

As I can't enjoy food at the moment, this seems an excellent alternative; much better than "nutritious" drinks you can get at the chemist.

I am glad you are here this morning, Grecian, as I have been thinking of you and how the time is approaching for your own little "intervention".  I hope all goes well and that you have now got the knack of having your mobile charged up and switched ON somewhere on your person at all times[:D]

That was the bit that took me the longest to get used to doing.  In fact, I can't tell you at this moment where the devil the mobile is.  Might have to ring it, yet again, to track it down and hope I have remembered to leave it ON![:-))]

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Hello all,

Mint sorry to hear your having the ulcers at the moment, not sure what you are taking but I highly recommend a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda in a short glass of water, put it in the mouth and hang on to it as long as possible 2 mins or longer. do this 4-5 times a day and brush teeth with some bicarb in with the toothpaste to. It's not too bad but it clears up ulcers quicker than anything else the NHS were being told to use at £18 a bottle. My oncologist was amazed how quickly the ulcers cleared and wrote Maverick on my file! Well you would but privately he remarked he had never seen an outbreak clear up over a weekend before.

With the blenders, seriously look at how easy they are to clean, especially around grooves and sealing rings. Under the sealing ring of the Nutriblaster it gets disgusting!  The Lidl and Aldi version work well but just a bit noisier.  The Nutrinija is an example of hard to clean, the jug fits into a narrow groove which is ridiculous to try and clean.

I have some organic, raw cacao powder I put a desert spoonful into my mix yesterday and had a chocolate flavoured one, albeit dark chocolate taste so a bit of honey if the bitter chocolate isn't your thing. 

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TP, took your advice and have been doing the bicarb mouth washes.  Thought they would be nice and soothing but in fact they sting and tingle quite a bit.

Tongue looks better so I hope they work over the next day or two.  Might dissolve a paracetamol in warm water and have mouth washes with that because the pain is really getting me down.

Pat, thank you for the good wishes.  What really impressed me was when I had a problem with my wound (the first one because I had two!) and I rang the surgeon's office  He was on holiday at the time but his colleague rang back the same afternoon and I had an appt to see her the very next morning!  I cannot imagine being able to ring a consultant's office in the UK and get an appt within 24 hours.  She dealt with the problem immediately and gave me some firm advice about taking things easy and not doing heavy jobs.  Well, nobody told me I should be resting and not cooking and cleaning as normal, did they?  How was I to know but I did learn my lesson[:)] 

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Mouth washes are alcohol based, often with some sugar in. bad to give a yeast infection those two. Yes does tingle/sting, but afterwards much relief for a few hours. I know it's horrible, I even brushed the ulcers gently with a soft brush so the bicarb could get at the enemy

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[quote user="mint"] What really impressed me was when I had a problem with my wound (the first one because I had two!) and I rang the surgeon's office  He was on holiday at the time but his colleague rang back the same afternoon and I had an appt to see her the very next morning!  I cannot imagine being able to ring a consultant's office in the UK and get an appt within 24 hours. 

[/quote]

You can for cancer related but that's about all (did at St Thomas's)

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Thanks guys, and nice to have your message Pommier[:)]

Couldn't stand the pain any more so I devised a cunning plan[:P]  I took a Prednisolone tablet, dissolved it in water and rinsed my mouth with that, taking care to keep the liquid in for several minutes.  At last some relief and I would do it again because pain from ulcers, like toothache, is pretty near unbearable.

Got a good supply of Prednisolone because I didn't always take them post chemo and they gave me surplus pills the last prescription.

I reasoned that, if they were good for inflammation, then they must be effective on ulcers.  OTOH, they could keep the ulcers from healing but I just had to find some relief.

Just had another idea as I write.  Perhaps I could suck some ice cubes? 

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Sorry to hear the ulcers are bad mint, hopefully the bicarbonate and pain killers with give you some relief. How many more sessions of chemo have you got to endure? Hope it is not too many.

Yes they will be 'intervening' on Monday, with all the hassle of not knowing if I still have health cover it is not exactly helping the situation. It will mean leaving my wife alone again for a week or more so also worried about that as well. Bloody disease.

Don't mention the mobile, had awful trouble trying to get the damn thing to start initially. When I switched it on the first time it was asking for a pin number, where does one find a pin number I thought. Looked on the internet, suggestions were: use the last four digits or your phone number, nope, 0000 nope, four digit number on the SIM card, must be that one, nope, I was about to throw the damn thing against the wall, when I looked at the card the SIM card was attached to and on there was an 8 digit number, tried that and yep all system go, nope. Well yes it accepted the pin and I could get into the phone. First window asking for which language I wanted the phone to be set up in, selected English pushed the big button in the middle of the phone, and the phone set itself up in Dutch.[:-))] I now know a little of the Dutch language, well the Dutch for settings and language. Finally managed to get the damn thing to speak to me in English, so hopefully things will now go according to plan, if I remember to turn it on!

More relevant to the thread, Théière I like the sound of a chocolate one, that sounds more like it. I guess you can pretty much zap anything you want to really. I keep dropping hints to Mrs G for Christmas, not sure she is taking them onboard though.

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Richard, many thanks for your good wishes and for the link which is both informative and interesting.  I am going to work intensively on some of those suggestions tomorrow, especially the bicarb mouth washes.

If you'd told me you could have such pains due to mouth ulcers and to an inflamed tongue, I wouldn't have believed it.  Rather have back the pains from surgery any day!

Grecian, don't forget to take your phone charger in with you!  Sorry to give such basic advice but it is one of those things you could forget if you are unfamiliar with a mobile.

Don't worry too much about the paperwork because I am sure that that is all it is, as you didn't have a carte vitale "off your own bat" as it were.  Also, Mrs G will be just fine, don't forget you were a lot longer in hospital the last time and she managed.  Us women come into our own when we need to![:D]

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[quote user="richard51"]http://www.chemocare.com/chemotherapy/side-effects/mouth-sores-due-to-chemotherapy.aspx

Thiere is giving some pretty sound advice. Some other does and donts here.[/quote]

Yes they mention bicarb, but salt! do these people actually try what they write?

"Chlorhexidine gluconate (Peridex®, PerioGard®)."  Again glucose don't give sugar to yeast infections!

I well remember the almost foaming at the mouth and the pain with bicarb Mint, but the hours of relief afterwards made it worth it and it cleared it quickly. bicarb is slightly antimicrobial.

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When my wisdom teeth were removed it was plain salt solution mouthwashes, when I had 24 very closely spaced stitches in a very precious member which would have healed perfectly had I been at a nudist colony but instead as expected turned very nasty (too much info!) it was salt water baths which saved the day.

 

I am all for natural remedies, its what allowed mankind to survive and reproduce to evolve into the precious cosseted beings that we have become

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[quote user="Chancer"]

When my wisdom teeth were removed it was plain salt solution mouthwashes, when I had 24 very closely spaced stitches in a very precious member which would have healed perfectly had I been at a nudist colony but instead as expected turned very nasty (too much info!) it was salt water baths which saved the day.

 

I am all for natural remedies, its what allowed mankind to survive and reproduce to evolve into the precious cosseted beings that we have become

[/quote]

No ulcerated yeast infections to counter? the difference, yes salt will keep things somewhat healthy but salt on an ulcer. Pray you never have to be in the situation to suffer that. I had to endure 3 salt baths a day to keep a full depth burn as clear as possible free of infection. However we are talking yeast infection and bicarb is better on that.  That's first hand experience and it surprised the Oncologists at the slightly less renowned St Thomas's hospital who don't hire slouches.

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I did not want to go into detail Teapot but the op I had was one usually reserved for babies whose bits see a lot more fresh air than mine did at 24 and would normally heal instantly and not require stitches.

 

An ulcerated yeast infection is probably exactly what it was assuming that yeast infections are not reserved for female bits only, it was necrotic and most of the stitches fell out together with the dead tissue they were once attaching, only a couple remained for the scheduled removal but thanks to the salt baths all the other wounds had healed perfectly.

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Apologies Chancer, I quoted you instead of Richard51.

The reason as per usual for forums is someone posts an idea, me in this case based on personal first hand experience then the wise after the event Google experts chip in.  Where are they in the first place?  Nope just have to try and take apart others posts. Really pisses me off, feckin easy to be a critic. Feckin accountant.

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To be fair to Richard, Teapot, when I had mouth ulcers and dental abscesses in the past, the dentist did recommend saline mouthwashes.

For the moment, I am sticking to bicarb so as not to rock the boat in case the salt stings even more than the bicarb!  So, it's more cowardice than not trusting Richard's link.

The bicarb stings less today and, yes, the ulcers ARE better except the splits at the sides of the mouth are still very sore and I continue to have problems eating and generally opening my mouth also.

How do I describe the stings?  It's like when you have put some extra hot chilli (or wasabi) into your mouth and you can't spit it out!!!  So, you drink some iced water or suck on ice cubes.  Of course the relief is just for the time you have the ice in your mouth.  The moment the iced water or melted cubes get swallowed, the burning and stinging come back with a vengeance.

If there are people out there reading and some of this is relevant to them (I suspect there must be a few), then I hope that you find the information on here helpful.

Grecian, I looked at that Breville model you mentioned and I read the comments.  Some people gave it 5 stars and others one!  Here is my opinion, I suspect that if you are using it on soft foods and in small quantities perhaps for a baby, it would work well.  But should you start putting in nuts and fibrous stuff, then I don't think the 300 W power is sufficient.  For example, my stick blender is 600 W and it does work well but I haven't tried to use it to do nuts!  I think that, like you, I'll go for a blender but a powerful one, 700 to 1000 watts.

TP, market day again tomorrow chez nous so I shall be there looking for kale!

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