New Rituals?

Chemo is a double-edge sword. It kills the bad rapidly replicating cells (the cancer), but it also kills the good rapidly replicating cells, like the ones on your skin, hair and in your mouth. The immune system gets zapped during the course of zapping the bad stuff. So, while the patient is immuno-compromised, there are certain rituals and precautions that the TBCC advises that they do while in chemo.

One of these precautions involves making sure you do mouth rinses, and that you brush your teeth after every meal and snack. This prevents bad bacteria from forming and causing mouth sores. They suggest avoiding over the counter mouth washes becuase most of them use alcohol, and suggest using club soda as a mouth rinse as the pH balance is closest to that of a human mouth.

 Another new ritual includes the fastidious washing of fruits and veggies. I've never been anal about washing veggies before, but we ended up buying a special veggie wash to soak our ruffiage in prior to eating. However there are still some precautions, like not eating fruits that are difficult to wash, like raspberries, simply because you can't scrub them. We have been cheating by including lots of blueberries and grapes in our diet.. just because we find them irresistible and delicious. So far so good!

One would assume that consuming lots of naturally occuring anti-oxidants would be of benefit to someone who needs help with their immunity. Not according to the TBCC. They tell us that concentrated doses (ie found in products at health food stores, or sold as alternative immune boosters) can actually interfere with the efficacy of chemo treatment. A recent study was performed, they tell us, showing that the ultimate of sensational healthy teas, the one and only Sencha, or Green Tea, is not to be drunk during the course of our treatment due to its high anti-oxidant levels. Who would have guessed ??