I was diagnosed with Cancer in March and although we knew it was Cancer its still a shock to be told it. I have had 2 chemo cycles now and have my 3rd at the end of the month. I would love to chat about the chemo side affects to anyone..
mention the neuropathy at your next chemo appointment, if they think it is bad enough they will decrease the dose slightly. I had bad neuropathy in hands and feet during my first lot of chemo (6 doses) the hand disappeared as soon as it finished and the feet were improving slowly when the cancer returned. Second time they gave Doxil instead of Taxol and it was better though still worse than it had been. I finished chemo oct and the neuropathy is gone except in my left foot. To be honest you do suprisingly get used to it!
As for the other symptoms you can get, as far as I can tell the ones you have after the first dose are the same u'll get right the way through. Generally the first week is the worse the second improving and if your licky you have a good third week before you start again. The tiredeness seems to be accumulative but do what you can when you can! this is a good time to listen to your body but make yourself do something little each day - I drive to costa coffee each day had have a coffee and read my book for an hour, sounds daft but it gets me out, fresh air and a little walk works for me lol
constipation needs sorting, are you taking pain killers? if so these have that effect so best speak to a dr. If not, something like milk of magnesia should do the trick
Hope that helps a bit. Above all keep positive and whenever possible cheerful. I'm sure the endorphins produced help!
Keep us posted as you can see we are a friendly lot lol
Hi cub dear, i am sorry to hear that you hadn't had time to have a family before all this happened. I was 56 when I was diagnosed, and had my children when I was fairly young.
As to you question about the length of time for the symptons, each person is different, most of the people who had their treatment with me had very little, some even went on holiday during theirs. I already had angina so it hit me harder. I really didnt leave the house in 9 months except for hosptial visits, as the pain in my feet made it extremely difficult to walk. I used to have my chemo on a wednesday or Thursday, the effects started on the Saturday. I was in bed for at least 3 or 4 days. Then I would start to feel a lot better by the following Saturday, then I would have a week of feeling not too bad, then the chemo again the next week.
The nueropathy in my hands and feet is a bit better, more so in my hands, unless I over do things then they ache. But the chemo damaged the joints in my feet, and destroyed the soft tissue under the soles of my feet. This has never recovered, but I still get about as I wear hotter shoes, they have a lot of padding in the bottom of the shoe which helps, I also put on a lot of weight from the surgery and the steroids, I had to pack in my job which didnt help as it meant I was very inactive. I have since learned to swim to help with this as in the water I am almost the same as everyone else. I joined a slimming world group and have up to now managed to lose 3 stones, I feel very well. I only mention the weight as no one told me the surgery could have this result. Most of the ladies I had my treatment with made a full recovery, which is what I sincerely hope for you. So just take each day as it comes, talk to your doctors about your side effects, I had constipation and thought that all I had to do was take a laxative, but the chemo used to stun my bowel so it stopped working for the first week after the chemo then would start to work the second week. I only found this out by talking to the nurses and doctors, so it doesnt matter how daft you think the question is please ask them, as non of us has been on this journey before so we dont know what to expect at first.
I hope you treatment goes well and that you are one of the lucky ones with few side effects.
Thanks so much for your advice, I'm going to mention the neuropathy tomorrow, the hospital are phoning to check up on me. It's definately getting worse in my fingertips, but thankfully nothing in my feet as yet. I'm glad you mentioned about the pain killers as I have been taking them. I've got myself a bottle of lactulose now so hopefully that will help.
I managed to go to work this afternoon though for 4 hours. Tired me out big time, so I'm vegging in front of the tv now! I was amazed when the nurse told me I would only be able to work 12 hours a week max, but now I realise she was right!
Thanks for your reply and for your kind words. Everyones advice has been so helpful on here, and it makes me feel settled knowing other people have experienced similar effects to me. Starting this chemo has scared me so much, and I was so ill at the weekend I really couldn't face the rest of the treatment. I still can't take it in that this has all happened to me. The consultant has offered me a councillor, which I'm having a think about.
Anyway, well done you on your weight loss!! That's a great acheivement. But not good about your feet, ouch. My feet haven't been affected so far, just my fingers. I'm mentioning it to the hospital tomorrow. But I admire how you have dealt with it all. I know it couldn't have been easy to have to give up work. It is a tough old journey, but reading what all you ladies have been through and where you are now, makes me determined to get through this.
I had a Hickman Line and it wasn't too bad having it fitted. A lovely staff nurse held my hand all the time and with the help of local anaesthetic, you don't feel anything but some tugging and pushing. It was the best thing to happen to me. No more needles or hunting for veins!! All blood test, transfusions and chemo (and medication as I couldn't swallow) went via my Hickman. I was loth to part with it. The tube site has to be dressed regularly (which I dreaded but it was painless) and the tube has to be flushed through fairly often. This is also a painless procedure which you can either do yourself or a nurse will do it for you. Occasionally the tube entry site can become a bit sore apparently. Luckily, although my Hickman was in place for many months, I didn't have any problems at all.
Do reassure your wife she'll be fine and the staff will see the whole thing is carried out as gently as possible. Prodding about for veins is a horrible experience and only adds to all the trauma this hateful illness brings.
I am quite new to this site but having suffered a serious cancer myself and also nursed my father with the same condition, know what it's like to be a patient and carer and the distress both bring. Keeping positive can sometimes be impossible so don't be hard on yourself if you have a "down" day. We should all be proud of ourselves because we "manage" and when there are times when we don't, the wonderful people here can support and help.
Let me know how things go along and I shall think of you both.
I have just read your message and you sound like myself as in I had my Mum pass away with cancer 3 years ago this year. The day before my birthday little did I know what was in store for me. But to be honest as I have said before there are worse things than cancer.
I hope John that this information that Carrie has passed on is a comfort to you and your wife. I think having the dreaded needles in your veins is very painful when they start to shrink.
I thought it was about time we updated our pictures
As you can see I am bald again on this one but it is coming back slowly...So it will soon be back to washing and blow drying Anyway come on ladies let us see some more pictures.....
John sorry about your dreadful day. Things will get better xx
Thanks for putting my mind at ease, I read and it sounded terrible! So it's nice to hear a good experience.
Mary looks at it as yet another procedure to endure! But she's only had 5 of 18 weekly treatments so it's only going to get harder finding veins.Her hair is thinning quite a lot now so that doesn't help matters.
Anyway, I'm taking her away for the weekend, hopefully a well timed break in the Cotswolds
