CHEMOTHERAPY: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Reviewed by Neha Pathak on February 22, 2018

Reviewed by Neha Pathak on February 22, 2018

Sources

Alida Evans, breast cancer survivor<br>Ashley Van Cise, RDN, chef, Wisdom Kitchen

© 2017 WebMD, LLC. All rights reserved.

Transcript from May 31, 2017

ALIDA EVANS: It was

in the summer of 2006.

I went to my regular doctor

for a regular checkup.

And then he noticed that I had

some rash under my right arm.

He didn’t say anything

except, I’m just going to send

you to a specialist.

Sure enough, she say it is

breast cancer.

And I say, are you sure?

Because you know,

you’re in disbelief

at that point.

I started chemotherapy two days

after that visit.

So I took chemo for a year,

for the entire year.

It was really hard.

You feel like a truck is running

over you, something

like that, like you get a really

bad flu or something.

It’s terrible.

Everything hurts, your bones.

After I finished chemotherapy,

I went back to my regular life.

My body was broken down from all

of the chemicals in my system.

So I say I need to take care

of my body.

So I need to change my lifestyle

and in terms of what I eat

and in terms of what I do

every day.

But then soon enough, I found

out about the Cancer Support

Community.

And I went there.

It’s a wonderful place.

They had exercise classes.

They had cooking classes.

And then I started going

to the nutrition classes.

There was a nutritionist there

very, very helpful.

ASHLEY VAN CISE: You can see

sort of in the middle

of broccoli,

like the white in the middle.

I’m a registered dietitian.

And I’m also a chef.

What you eat plays big into how

you feel and into your health.

ALIDA EVANS: When I had

my first meeting,

I started crying.

So I said, well, I’m crying

because I have cancer.

And everybody say, well, me too,

me too, me too.

Me too.

I realized that there was

many other people

in the same situation.

That was a good feeling.

ASHLEY VAN CISE: I was very

young when my brother was

diagnosed with leukemia.

And I saw him go

through chemotherapy.

He was able to recover just

fine.

But I got to kind of see it,

how cancer can really impact

your life and just how hard it

is.

So just kind of having

that experience

made me want to help

other people who’ve gone

through that same experience.

Has larger stems on it,

you can actually roast that.

ALIDA EVANS: You know,

I have many more like this.

ASHLEY VAN CISE: Oh, you do?

ALIDA EVANS: This is–

I love this.

While she cooks,

she talks about this is

good for fiber.

This has a lot

of anti-inflammatories.

And it was a change of life

for me.

I never used to really cook.

So I started cooking healthy

and paying attention to what I

eat every day.

It’s very good to be surrounded

by people in the same situation,

because you exchange ideas.

Like you say,

I’m having this side effect.

And I don’t know what to do.

And somebody knows.

Somebody has tried something.

And you get tips on how

to manage the side effects,

on how to do things better.

And also, you make friends.

It has made a difference

in my life,

because I feel great.

I really feel great.

The doctor said, you have 40%

chance of surviving this.

And it’s been 10 years.

So something is working.

In the future, I really don’t

know.

I can tell you honestly that I

don’t know.

Once you get cancer,

you live one day at a time

really.

I can never say that I am cured,

because I don’t know.

But I’m fine today.

And that’s what counts,

one day at a time.

Author

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