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..
Hello everybody, may I join you and introduce myself? I opened a new thread on this subject the other day in the "introduce yourself" section, but I really wanted to get onto this site. I am 67 yo and live in Essex, UK and have recently been diagnosed as having tumours on both ovaries, plus some areas on the omentum and outer bowel. However, my hospital MDT wants to ascertain whether my ovaries are the primary site or secondary to breast ca I had 15 years ago before planning my treatment, so I've just had a biopsy and await results on 22nd Feb. I found your site about a month ago and was both heartened by all your posts, and at the same time scared - not of the treatment particularly but the outcome. Some days I feel that I won't get through this, other days I think "No, you won't get me, you (expletive deleted!)"
The last post on your site was 28th Dec, I have been checking, so I hope you are all getting along OK
Some of the ladies here have had weekly chemo which seemed to work well for them, I'm surprised they haven't altered the chemo as NICE guidelines to recommend changing if you get less than 6 months 'remission', on the other hand I suppose it makes sense to try weekly while adding the Avastin and keep the others for use later. Some seem to follow the guidelines while others do there own thing!
Hi Jackie,
I remember you making this point about a year ago when Mary was on a Japanese regimen of Carbo/Taxol. This time around, her consultant has prescribed her GemCarbo but has split the dosage equally for week A and B. This confuses the hell out of the chemo nurses as they always think that she is on week A and needs to go to clinic. Yes, her consultant certainly seems to do his own thing and I asked him about this at clinic.
His rationelle was that many ladies cannot cope with the recommended dosage of chemo for week A, and so many times their neutrophils are too low to receive treatment on week B. By adjusting the dosage so that it is split over week A and B, you are less likely to miss a treatment session so that has to be a better schedule.
You cannot really argue with that, he is the top oncologist at the hospital and surely the NICE guidelines are eventually moulded by the best oncologists. We have faith in what he is doing, of course he cannot promise a cure but he will do his best to ensure her the best quality and quantity of life that he possibly can.
I also remember you saying that your onc plays it by the book and you felt like hitting him over the head with the book! LOL - well perhaps you should!
It's very quiet here at the moment, I hope everyone is ok.
Glad to hear all your news John it all sounds very positive. Fingers crossed the anti sickness will work this time, it will make the treatments so much more tolerable. I'm glad the aims of treatment have now 'out in the open', it makes life much easier as you can now discuss things without worrying about what you are saying.
I just wish that the NICE guidelines filtered through quicker esp as my cons it not of the free thinking variety!!! on the other hand I can't complain as what he's done has worked well for me so far.
My sister is visiting at the mo (which is nice) and unfortunately my hernia problem is making using the computer difficult, so if i'm not around much don't worry, i'm actually fine!
Mary is fine apart from being quite tired, she has been for her blood test this morning and has been cleared to have her chemo this afternoon - our daughter is with her today. Hope you are ok and your chemo goes well and the new tablets make a difference, always worth a try.
I have booked flights to the Algarve next Thursday and all being well we will be going out for 4 nights - Thursday to Monday. If she feels unwell we will just not go and lose the flight money, but it will be Mary's week off chemo so hopefully that is when she'll be at her best.
Hope everyone else is ok, it has gone very quiet again.
I left home at 9am and got back at 7pm - God, it is such a long, boring day, even though I take puzzles, book, mags etc. I would rather listen to Radio 4 but the reception is appalling in there! It's so tiring too, although you are sitting on your bum all day!
I've taken one of the new anti-emetics already, and am wearing the wrist-bands you recommended, so fingers crossed!
I hope Mary stays well enough for your little trip next weekend - something nice to look forward to, and away from this interminable rain we're having now there is a hosepipe ban!
It has gone quiet on here again, hasn't it - I guess everyone is too busy with their problems, so wish them all well xxx
What a long day you've had! Yes it does get boring, fortunately Mary got away just after 2pm today, that's the earliest so far. Hopefully that will give time for the steroids to wear off so that she will be able to sleep. This is week B, so hoping that the new anti-sickness tabs will do the trick again this week, and of course I hope your's do too. Glad you invested in the wrist bands (I haven't actually bought any yet), trouble is if something works for you, it'll be difficult to know what it was - but it doesn't matter so long as it does!
Yes we are really looking forward to our Portugal trip, hoping that Mary will feel well enough to go and with a bit of luck get some sunshine, have hired a car for £60 and the hotel is only £29 per night b&b!!! (both can be cancelled). We were laughing about the hosepipe ban too today, doesn't it seem ridiculous?! Mary is really missing her garden at the moment, I'll bet you are too.
Re Radio 4 - May I suggest you download some podcasts so that you can listen at the hospital. Do you have a small laptop or an mp3 player of some sort that you could use for this? or perhaps an SD card in your mobile phone? Here is the link if it helps - http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/podcasts/
Sorry to hear of your complications and setbacks. My advice would be to try not to panic so much at this stage, but to wait and see what the scan results show. Then when you discuss your options with the hospital team take someone from your family with you so that you can all decide together, or ask for more time to decide.
Let us know when you've had the scan results - I'll have everything crossed for you.
