Dear Mrs. Maschos,

Your husband is going to undertake a procedure whereby particles will be
accelerated through his body with such speed as to kill by burning radiation
any live cell in its path.  The machine will be rotated several times in
order to do the most killing in one particular area of his body, but it will
kill cells along each of the several paths.

Both healthy cells and cancer cells reproduce themselves (by the millions)
every day.  The radiation process is going to require more cell
self-reproduction among the healthy cells.

So, Steve will need highly nutritional foods to assist the cell
reproduction.  He will need hi-energy food to combat fatigue.  He will need
what otherwise might be considered excessive fluid intake (preferably water)
to assist the body in getting rid of the dead cells and to keep clean the
urinary tract (which will get more than it's fair share of radiation) and
keep moist the colon (which too will get more radiation).

But, Steve will not only need good food and plenty of liquid.  He will also
need to sleep more each night (I added an hour each night) and he should
have a good cardiovascular regimen (something that keeps his 75-year-old
heart rate at 116 for 20 minutes a day should do), again to assist in the
body's natural tendency to repair itself and get rid of debris.

Midway through, he may become diarrheic.  If so, choose food than binds.
However, medicinal supplements may be required.

At first, this is a no-sweat procedure.  Side-effects come on slowly.  Most
make it through without a stopping, but pausing is an option for any
side-effect that gets too bad.

Steve

I just finished a 6 week course of IMRT and HDR.  Some things I did,
based on suggestions by doctors at UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Don't eat raw fruit of veggies with a lot of fiber.
Eat smaller meals more often.
Ok to have high protein items during treatment.
Fill up bladder with water before going in for treatments.
Avoid antioxidant vitamins for three months after treatment.

It was very easy except for the mild diarreha I had for a couple of
weeks during tratments.  Now that it's been three weeks since
treatents, I am still working full time, have a mild issue with
fatigue.  Having mild problem with urgency which is minamized wth
Flomax.

Here's a link from UCSF with nutrition information for your
consideration.

http://cc.ucsf.edu/crc/hm_symptoms_nutrition.html

Good luck,

Richard fr Monterey