Chemotherapy

Many people ask about this. And it’s no wonder; a bad diagnosis can upend the patient’s life and the people who love and care for her/him. It’s natural to want to help, and this help is often in the form of looking up stuff online and then forwarding it to your loved one. That’s not actually helpful.

Believe me please when I say I’ve had a lot of experience with chemo, both myself and so many people I care about.

I had ACT (Adriomyacin-Cytoxin-Taxol) chemo in 2016 for Breast Cancer. I did it because when I was diagnosed, I  had the genetic marker making me prone to it.

If you have had a cancer diagnosis, you’ve got to have a medical team you can trust and feel comfortable with. If you don’t like your doctor or medical center, try to change. If you’ve been recommended to follow a chemo protocol, the experience totally sucks but it’s survivable. It’s important to try not to get caught up in millions of articles about this or that, and whether this essential oil or this herb can help.

Chemo works by basically breaking down your entire body and allowing the highly toxic drugs to also destroy the cancer. Your mission is to nurture yourself as much as you can, allow the drugs to work, and then help yourself come out of it, slowly. Some chemo protocols are worse than others; some have almost no side effects, and some gnarly ones like ACT affect some people worse than others.

Essential oils might best be left on the shelf during acute treatment stages for a couple of reasons. Your senses of taste and smell will likely be skewed. Your favorites, jasmine, lavender sandalwood, geranium, even rose, whatever they are, might smell weird and messed up. Also, unless you are really craving your frankincense, or vetiver or whatever, remember that you might associate your current sense of self, your feelings, your emotions, with that oil in future

But not to worry; all your favorite essential oils will be waiting for you on the other side of treatment.

You might be attracted to entirely different smells, maybe not even natural ones, or you may just want to heave your guts out at any smell at all. It’s cool. And it’s temporary.

If your chemo is known to cause nausea, they will give you steroids to combat this.

Chances are you will crave bland, stodgy food, quiet, and a minimum of input. You might lose your hair, your eyebrows, your eyelashes and your nails. Your concentration and vision might even not be optimal. It’s ok. It’s temporary.

And you won’t feel like shit the entire time. It won’t hit you suddenly, like a ton of bricks. Don’t worry about that. And remember it’s all temporary.

There are support groups available, and you will hopefully have good people around you. Even if you don’t, you will still get through it. If you find you enjoy the scent of a blend or an oil, in the room, then use it by all means. But don’t overdo them. Meditation and yoga, especially if you already practice, are beneficial too, especially very gentle restorative yoga.

I guess I should say you shouldn’t take any essential oils or herbs internally during chemo. This seems obvious but I’ve seen people push it. Don’t fall for it. Your liver is already working at 100% to get rid of the chemo drugs. Don’t add to it and don’t complicate it.

Essential oils are not a cancer cure. Tons of people parrot this easy fallacy and it’s just awful to say. Essential oils will add serenity, beauty, delight, and happiness to your life. They are friends of memory, of joy, of the senses.

They will be there waiting for you on the other side of chemo, and it will be a brilliant reunion. They will unfold their exquisite molecules, and bloom all around you. And as you feel stronger day by day, as your body slowly regains its composure, as your hairs grow back, and your nails grow back, and your weight normalizes, and all the other issues rectify, you will be back in the saddle, as they say, and every day you will become stronger, and feel more like yourself. And your essential oils will be there, old friends and good friends, to walk with you along the path back to health.

For a bit more on this topic, please see our page on frankincense and cancer. If you have a question and want my opinion about chemo, you can send an email to trygve@enfleurage.com