SPGDCM%cmsa.Berkeley.EDU@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (06/02/89)
In dealing with my lymphoma in my throat, I was eating almost nothing due to
throat pain and sedation and such. I had lost down from 210 6 months agao to
170, 15 of these lost in the last week. My doctor prescribed Megace, 20mg once
or twice a day. It's a miracle, I have a wonderful appetite and am eating well
again after only a couple days on it.
I had feared it would make me hungry and the throat pain would torture me when
I ate. Well, sort of, but it feels like free choice, that is, I gobble down my
food and notice some pain but feel "well, ok, but boy does that taste good".
Gaining perhaps a pound a day.
I think a study was done on megace and aids wasting disease (which in effect
took off the first 20 or 30 pounds of the drop I mention above). Oddly, it's a
female hormone of some sort and in the 1988 PDR it's only used to help out in
women's breast cancer, helping the cancer go away, not fixing the appetite.
Given the seriousness of my weight loss and health status, I'd even accept
some untoward side effects such as gynecomastia or whatever. But does anyone
know whether there is any risk of this? For that matter, is this treatment
useful only for MEN with wasting syndrome?
What I find spectacular is that at least for me, there are no side effects. I
feel just the same but eat much better. It's like the hungries one gets from
smoking pot, without any sedative or euphoric effects (except eating properly
is mildly euphoric in its own right...)
( )
( Doug Mosher <SPGDCM@CMSA.Berkeley.edu> )
( ...!ucbvax!cmsa!spgdcm )
( 257 Evans, Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA, 415/642-5823 )
miraculous megace