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Someone close to me has had ovarian cancer (a woman in her early 60's). She has undergone surgery for it as well as chemotherapy. Now, about two years later she barely has any energy and gets tired very quickly. I wonder why she isn't regaining her strength now that she's cancer-free. Will she ever gain her strength back? I've seen people beat cancer and get back to being their old selves, healthy as ever. Could her age be responsible for her slow recovery? Does this mean that she may not be getting better, but rather progressively worse?

I went in for minor surgery a year ago this past March, in which they found Ovarian Cancer.
Eight hours of surgery, and they removed everything. I was totally unaware that I had cancer. I had no symptoms and was in excellent health. Lived a very healthy lifestyle, vegetarian, worked out 4 days a week and practiced Ayruveda….
I was a stage 1C, with 16 weeks of Chemo every three weeks. Each treatment would last 8 hours.
I really never had any side effects except the hair loss and a bit of numbness in my fingertips and on the bottom of my toes.
I felt wonderful after my treatments as a matter of fact, and really never experienced any reprocusions.

I believe that with your friend, it depends on the type of Chemo administered to her, and how long she endured the treatments.
She definetly needs to inform her Oncologist of this, and ask him is this is a result of the treatment.
If she is cancer free and not needing any further treatment that would interfere with her immune system, then she certainly should have recovered her strength back.
Please insist that she gets a check up.

I would also recommend that she takes Cayenne Pepper in capsul form. This will increase her energy levels for sure. She must take it with food and I would recommend milk also.
I take about 20 different spices and herbs every day, and this is what attributed to no side effects from Chemo….
Everything is natural and can be purchased at a Health Food Store in your area…
If you would like more information as to what spices may help her, please feel free to contact me.

My prayers and thoughts are with her….

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My mother is going through chemotherapy and has gotten very weak in the process. Is there any way that I can get a handicap placard or license plate for her? If yes, how do I go about it?

yes, all you do is go to the doc and ask. he just fills in a couple blanks on a form and you take it to the dmv. it is very easy, sometimes they make them for 6 months, other times longer. goodluck.

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I want to get experience working in a pharmacy because I'll be going to pharmacy school.

It varies from state to state, but I think the normal requirements are 2 years of work in a pharmacy or 2-3000 work hours on the job (rough equivalent of 2 years, forgive me for not being precise). It would be a great prospect for a future pharmacist, but you should know that you do not need to become a tech to get experience in pharmacy at all. If you're still in highschool, visit your local hospital and set up a meeting with the clinical pharmacist or director there, explain that you're interested in entering the pharmacy program at the college you plan on attending and more often than not, they will schedule you to shadow them for a day and take you around to tour the hospital pharmacist's duties (if you're truly interested, they might hire you back for summer work when you've entered the actual school of pharmacy). Also, this can be done at any local pharmacy or pharmacy chain. All pharmacy students are required to work as interns and externs as part of their "rotation" period. During this time they visit various pharmaceutical institutions and work hands on with the professionals there to get first hand experience at what board certified pharmacists do day to day. This will help you determine what kind of pharmacist you would like to become, whether it be retail, hospital, or something more administrative. When you actually enter the school of pharmacy at your college, revisit the place you shadowed and see if they participate in rotations and see if you can get a rotation there in the future. Hope this helps

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I have accepted to pharmacy school and am planning on working at a retail pharmacy, preferably Walgreens due to location, next summer. I do not want to waste a month next summer trying to find a job, I would rather get a job now but start working next summer. What is the quickest way to securing employment for next summer? Thanks for your time.

First check with your school. Network the neighborhood pharmacy CVS WALGREENS great start. I am a Pharmacy Tech. It is hard and fast pace. Try to get a pharmacist or someone to take you under their wing so to speak. You will do better than I did being in pharmacy school and all. You will do fine. I like the street level but I really want the hospital and less public contact.

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How do you make medicine from water hyacinth? What specific type of medicine will be produced? I need it fast…
What specific type of medicine will be produced? I need methods of how to make it a medicine! I need to know how they survive in polluted waters! I need it fast within 24 hours!

The antoxidative properties of water hyacinth leaves were investigated by evaluating the scavenging capacity of liquid extracts in a competitive protective process against oxygenated free radicals (OFRs) released via electrolysis in a phosphate buffer with a Pt electrode. Colorimetric measurements carried out at 515 nm, through a N,N-diethyl-1,4-phenylenediamine (DPD) assay, showed a decreased absorbance of the sample, as compared to the blank obtained by electrolysis of the buffer without plant extract, revealing, thereby, the presence of antioxidizing agents in the liquid extracts. The antioxidative activity was estimated in terms of equivalent-glutathione (EG, in nmoles equivalent-glutathione per gram of dry plant material selected (eg/gdp)), and compared to those of soya beans and garlic bulbs. The EG value increased with decreasing dilution factors, regardless to the plant type, suggesting a strong influence of the medium pH on the antioxidizing agent extraction yields. Various plant drying procedures, namely: sunlight exposure (at 25–30 °C), heating (40 and 60 °C) and freeze-drying (at –70 °C) were also examined. The highest EG (ca. 40 nmol eg/gdp) was observed for freeze-dried leave extract, while the lowest value was obtained upon heating at 60 °C (16–17 nmol eg/gdp), presumably due to a detrimental effect of increased temperature. The glutathione content in the plant extracts was further determined spectroscopically at 412 nm, through an enzymatic assay, using glutathione reductase. Small but interesting contents of glutathione (ca. 40 nmol eg/gdp) were found in the hyacinth leaves, making this plant to be regarded as an alternative and convenient low-cost raw material for antioxidizing agent recovery.

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I am looking for a medicine which will help to reduce the side effect suffer from chemotherapy surgery.

The doctor told me the medicine contains "L-Glutamine" and it is made by "Cambridge Nutraceuticals company".

However, I couldn't find it anyway.
Anyone know where I can buy it? Online or in-store all fine.

You can buy it at most vitamin stores or body building supply shops. Ask for L- Glutamine itself. My wife took it during chemo. It is best and more economical to buy it in powder form and without any other additives. Don't just buy a general supplement with some L-Glutamine in it. It is made by more than one company. You just mix the powder up with water or I guess milk if you want. Add some real vanilla extract if you want to improve the flavour as it doesn't have much taste.

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If anybody can help me out with this subject matter, that would be great! I know the blood brain barrier is a tight seal of endothelial cells that prevents many chemical substances and bacteria from entering the brain. (is there anything else I shoould know about it?) Also, what kind of drugs are able to penetrate the blood brain barrier? I know highly lipid soluble drugs can, but are there any others? In addition, what is the reason for these drugs to be able to cross it? What are the implications for this?

Thank you to anyone who can help. It’s GREATLY appreciated.

General Properties of the BBB:
-Large molecules do not pass through the BBB easily.
-Low lipid (fat) soluble molecules do not penetrate into the brain.
-Molecules that have a high electrical charge are slowed.

There are plenty of medications that cross the BBB, and all recreational drugs do as well.

The reason these drugs can cross it is because the brain has to let SOME things pass into it (glucose, oxygen, etc) but also has to keep things out (bacteria), so these are the rules it sets up to let everything the brain needs pass through, while minimizing the amount of other chemicals that can pass. The drugs that we have are just loopholes that still meet the chemical requirements.

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I know drug use stimulates the reward center in the brain resulting in further use, but does it also reinforce personality traits brought about by addiction. Example, if a person is not naturally angry except when using drugs, do the drugs positively reinforce anger as well as the compulsion to use. If someone were to take drugs that stimulate their reward center every time they had a manic episode, would manic depression and the pleasure from the drugs become paired therefore increasing manic episodes.

Wow! That's a very interesting question. If I understand what you're asking, you want to know if a behavior that happens at the time of a "high" from recreational drug use, is reinforced by the state of mind induced from the drug. I would say it was possible.

In some cases, the change in mental status would be the precipitating factor. An example could be a person who was angry once they were under the influence of alcohol. The alcohol itself limits inhibitions, so one is the natural consequence of another.

But the other idea you present is: if altered mental status is also accompanied by another action and both are done simultaneously over time, would the brain tie one behavior in with the other even if they are not related?

The second option would work almost like biofeedback. Years ago, there was a Bill Moyers special done about healing and the mind. They talked about using biofeedback methods to control medical conditions. A girl with asthma was given her medication PLUS was exposed to the smell of oranges at the same time. Once the medicine worked, her symptoms went away. Over time, they kept doing the same thing except they decreased the amount of medicine, but continued to expose her to the smell. Eventually, just smelling the scent of oranges calmed her asthma symptoms down without having to take the drug.

So, back to your question about drugs and behaviors. I think if two behaviors were carried out at the same time long enough, doing one could trigger the other without it having to be the direct cause of the drug itself.

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It is my understanding that chemotherapy drugs target body cells that proflierate quickly.
Because hair cells, have a rapid rate of turnover, they are subject to the anti-mutagenic effects of chemotheraphy drugs. I may be wrong of course…

Why doesnt cancer treatment target the skin, which turns over rather quickly as well?

Chemotherapy can affect the skin. It can cause rashes and peeling of the skin. Chemotherapy attacks fast growing cells and the cells in the hair follicles grow rapidly so that is why there is hair loss.

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I got some results that show that as a patient was getting chemotherapy (Daunorubicin and Cytarabine), the amoutn of white blood cells and platelets went down, but the mass of hemogloblin per Liter went up. Anybody able to explain this?

Possible that the patient being treated with a red blood cell booster drug like Arnasep or Procrit? (i.e. EPO.)

My hemoglobin was ridiculously low at diagnosis for advanced stage Hodgkin’s Disease — it was actually around 7.0. So I started getting Arnasep shots and it increased despite the chemo. Once it hit 11.0, the Arnasep was discontinued, but my hemoglobin still kept climbing despite the chemo. If the patient was like me and had a heavy disease burden, perhaps knocking back the cancer is allowing the body and bone marrow to function better.

Would also consider dehydration — makes the blood more concentrated which can make the hemoglobin level seem higher.

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