posted by sandie20
04 August 2020
Advise on weight loss
Last reply:
05 August 2020 14:58
Hi all
Husband has started treatment for his lung cancer we have just completed week 1 and he has lost so much weight I’m scared dnt know how to help what to do for him any advice would be great I feel out of my depth here and we have only just started this journey
Hi Sandie
I am so sorry to hear of the difficult time you and your husband are going through at the moment. It is all new and very daunting. The cancer nurses here on our Nurseline are here to help in any way we can. We also have nurses in a number of hospitals in our Daffodil centres who will support you through this.
We would have a number of suggestions that might help regarding diet plus a book ‘Cancer and Diet’ here which we can post to you too.
Regarding minimising weight loss it can be very difficult to ‘get it right’ because when having treatment, every day is a little different. What might work and what your husband might feel like will differ too from day to day. The best you can do is to try and have small portions of nutritious snacks available that are high in protein and energy(calories) to help build up his strength. Sometimes the smell of food is off putting and so cold snacks work best. He may have a metallic taste in his mouth so plastic utensils might help. If he feels like something hot simple things like scrambled egg(adding little butter/cream) /chicken/fish/nuts in small portions every 2-3 hours would be ideal.
There are high calories drinks and supplements he could have too. I would suggest you ask to speak with the dietitian attached to his oncology team for advice on these.
I hope you will ring our Nurseline to discuss all of this because it must be over whelming for you. Our number is 1800 200 700 and we are here Mon- Fri 9-5pm.
Kind regards
Cancer Nurse | Irish Cancer Society.