r/TNBC • u/No_Love2524 • 1d ago
Support Drinking after chemo?
Is it bad if I want to drink after chemo? Before radiation and oral chemo? I almost think I deserve it.
I finished chemo 6/11, surgery 7/24, I start radiation tomorrow. I will admit that I’ve had a bourbon or few after surgery…
Is that ok? Probably not. Am I giving myself cancer again? The way my mind works, I think I am…. Do I think I deserve a break from every fucking thing since 12/5/25… yes.
Help a sister out and tell me I’m ok….
Fuck, fucking cancer.
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u/peeweemom 1d ago
I finished chemo in June… still on keytruda- I drink but way less than before
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u/No_Love2524 1d ago
I’m still on keytruda too. I was a daily drinker and could drink a 1.75 in a week, sometimes less depending on my depression or week at work. It takes me week to get through a 750 ml now maybe a little longer. I’ll stop again im sure. I just wanted a break… and validation for it. lol.
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u/attorneydummy 1d ago
ChatGPT said I should not. I'm drinking a glass of wine right now. My take: I've already got cancer. Fuck it.
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u/No_Love2524 1d ago
This. I bought a bottle of bulliet bourbon and I’ve been sipping on it for about 3 wks…
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u/Edith_Keelers_Shoes 1d ago
You're okay. My oncologist told me there was no reason I couldn't have a drink now and again. My chemo nurse told me the same thing. But my mouth and gut are different now - it burns. I pivoted to THC instead - gives me that little mental vacation, but doesn't singe my esophagus.
You can always ask your oncologist as well. I've always had the understanding that the "issue" with drinking during treatment is that it can put a strain on a liver that is already being overworked dealing with the toxins from treatment. If organ health is not an issue for you, then your oncologist is not god. Unless they can give you a direct, palpable medical reason why you shouldn't drink, they are speaking subjectively. I don't know about you, but I've had quite enough of unsolicited "opinions" from oncologists. (My favorite is the doctor who told me I should not take the opiates palliative care prescribed me - I should medicate the anxiety instead. Well that doctor can hustle right on down to Hades - how DARE she try to gaslight me about controlling pain?)
My point with the opiate story is that my oncologist was speaking subjectively. I guess she just doesn't "approve" of pain meds, even though her OWN palliative care team suggested I would benefit from them. I'll be damned if I'm going to let some litigation-phobic lady in a white coat talk me out of doing something that will make me feel BETTER. And knowing myself as well as I do, I know that I will never take those meds with anything that might interact badly with them, nor will I overconsume them.
Yes, they will say that drinking can increase your possibility of recurrence. So can stress. So can inflammation. So can reading the damn newspaper. So can countless other things. I'm functionally cured from metastatic TNBC, and my diet was atrocious for all 6 years of my treatment because I could only eat crap like breakfast sandwiches. But I NEEDED those calories. I needed to be able to eat something that tasted okay and made me feel good.
You do the math, because it is your life, not your oncologist's. If having a drink every now and then will make you feel better (thereby reducing stress), then a doctor should have an extremely good and specific reason for telling you not to do it. My oncologist happens to be judgmental - and as such, she gave me bad information by telling me to replace opiates with benzos, without giving me any compelling medical information to support her advice. I weighed the options, did the mental calculation, and chose to ignore her advice.
At the end of the day, it is your life. And you deserve to be happy.
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u/Unusual_Flounder2073 1d ago
I think you touched on the biggest risk when you mentioned liver. Chemo beats the living shit out of everything. Especially the liver. So it’s probably not going to affect your cancer. It might cause issues with your meds. But mostly it will beat up your liver a little more. If you are ok with that. Go for it. The chemo probably did more. My wife’s a bit freaky about it so I haven’t pushed it and I was never a real drinker anyway. But she’s a bit over the top right now understandingly. Oh and the cancer came roaring back anyhow so meh.
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u/Edith_Keelers_Shoes 1d ago
My daughter likes a good stiff whiskey at night, and she takes Milk Thistle supplements to protect and support her liver. It's not pseudo-sciene - the NIH has actually published studies that show Milk Thistle not only protects the liver, it can even reverse early liver damage. I'd call that a win-win.
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u/No_Love2524 1d ago
I love this answer. I’m happy for you as well, being cured from TNBC… I hope to call myself that sometime in a bunch more months. Im trying so hard to not be stressed. To be grateful I’ve made it this far. But, homie… my life is shit. It’s a lot better than some but, as soon as something is going ok, im waiting for that other shoe to drop, when it does im like “welp” and then i deal with that.
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u/Edith_Keelers_Shoes 1d ago
Many people have the luxury of not understanding what it feels like to have the equivalent of a guy with a loaded gun pointed at your head following you around 24/7 - and his finger is on the trigger. And he has a hand tremor. You know who is especially good at not understanding this? Oncologists. No one loves a Pyrrhic victory more than an oncologist.
Grab all the happiness you can. I decided to make my own personal comfort a priority the minute I was diagnosed, and no doctor could ever prove in a court of law that making myself as comfortable and happy as possible every day did not contribute to my positive outcome.
And when you graduate from cancer school and are officially on the other side of TNBC, I will shower you with confetti myself, and welcome you to the club. We have GREAT snacks.
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u/You-bettah-dont 20h ago
Omg i would have chosen violence if my doc suggested treating my bone pain with benzos. Does she have anyyyyy idea how addictive THOSE things are?
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u/Edith_Keelers_Shoes 14h ago
Exactly! I honestly felt like she just wanted to pass the controlled substance buck to someone else. Fortunately by then I had finally grown a backbone.
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u/Sparkly_Sprinkles 21h ago
I got approval to have a margarita while I’m on xeloda for the bts concert next weekend.
She just told me to be careful and if I started to not feel good stop immediately.
I barely drank before cancer. I’d have a single margarita on Friday nights. Or champagne on a girls night out. Otherwise I didn’t drink at all. Still got cancer.
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u/dumplinglifesaver 1d ago
My oncologist just told me not to drink alcohol at all when I asked him about it but I also have cirrhosis of the liver which was found on my scans. I haven't had alcohol since I was diagnosed over a year ago. He did say I can have thc gummies or drinks though.
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u/4Bigdaddy73 15h ago
I was a big drinker prior to diagnosis. I’ve kind of lost my desire and tolerance for it since. But if I feel up to it, I will still have a bourbon or two.
What ever makes things tolerable as you go through this journey… if that means a drink, then so be it.
Best of luck to you
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u/undergroundmusic69 1d ago
What drugs are you on? It’s likely not an issue but it’s dependent on the drugs. Go to a trusted medial app like Medscape and type in all the drugs you are on and add ethanol (the type of alcohol in alcohol), see what the interaction checker says.
Some drugs can be deactivated or cleaved by ethanol, most are not. Other drugs are heavily metabolized in the liver and can be backed up by the need to metabolize alcohol, this can increase concentrations in the system and cause issues and toxicities. The only way to know is to check and probably tell your doctor and/or pharmacist.
I’m sorry you’re going through this, I just ask that if you do drink, try and do it safely.