njliu
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Posts:142
My wife has been suffering from diarrhea as a side effect of Iressa for almost 3 years. I just want to share that she has amazingly not had this problem for the last one month since she strictly avoid drinking bottled water and instead only drink boiled water. Hope this info can be of help to others.
NJ
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Reply # - September 30, 2014, 08:16 PM
Wow. I have never heard of
Wow. I have never heard of that before but may offer that suggestion to the next patient or two who experiences major issues with diarrhea on an EGFR TKI. It would be an easy, relatively painless thing to test in some other people, and it would be a wonderful thing if it is widely found to be effective.
I would take credit for it but feel a bit bad about it and still think of you.
:wink:
Thanks for sharing that tip!
-Dr. West
Reply # - October 9, 2014, 08:37 PM
NJ,
NJ,
In 2 years on Tarceva my wife's diarrhea went from every 3 days to every 4 or 5, but is now every day or two. It makes her miserable, as does eating a bland diet with minimal fibre (fruit & vegetables) to try to control it.
A dose reduction or a holiday were looking likely, so your post was riveting. Drinking water can actually have an immediate negative effect, and she hasn't worked out how to drink - when she needs to on a serial diarrhea day.
I'm not sure what you mean by 'only drink boiled water'. Is that:
a) boiled water, drunk hot (tea without the flavour)
b) tap water boiled, then kept in the fridge - if so, drunk cold or after warming to room temperature
c) something else
And has your wife relaxed her 'diet policing' now she has the side effect under control?
Thanks for any further detail you can give,
Alex
Reply # - October 10, 2014, 06:30 AM
I presumed he meant B,
I presumed he meant B, boiling tap water before drinking it, but not necessarily drinking it hot. NJ can confirm or not.
-Dr. West
Reply # - October 10, 2014, 09:09 AM
Hi Alex, yes! Dr. West is
Hi Alex, yes! Dr. West is correct. We boil tap water and leave it to cool to room temperature before consumption. I think it does not matter if it is taken as hot tea, room temperature or refrigerated. Hope this can help your wife. We stumbled upon this solution when we were traveling, which for convenience, were taking bottled water, and my wife were suffering from daily serious diarrhea. FYI we always drink boiled water at home, but were sometimes taking bottled water. Now we strictly stick to only boiled water wherever we go. She has since had no serious problem.
Please keep us posted if this work for your wife too.
NJ