I thought now the best time to summarise side effects during Cycle 1 - period 3rd July 2024 (Day 1) and 23rd Jly 2024 (Day 21).
GENERAL:
1. GENERAL FEELING THROUGHOUT - Days 1 & 2 mainly OK, Days 3 to 8 things generally deteriorated. Some issues continued / improved and others cleared from Days 8 to 14 after which I felt pretty well back to normal.
2. EXERCISE / WEIGHT - Had already established a beefed up excercise routine and improved diet to offset potential weight gain from ADT already started before chemo. Decided to maintain this to try and take advantage of possible "easier" wieght loss through chemo and start from a better base for the future. Lost 7 lbs over Days 1 to 21 which I was pleased with. Chemo people not quite so keen, but convinced them that I did actually eat very healthily, had not suffered major appetite loss and it was intentional combined with exercise.
SPECIFICS:
1. FUZZY HEAD / HEADACHES - Woke on days 2 to 5 with a generally fuzzy head and headaches. Took paracetamol and cleared by midday. No significant issues after that.
2. BONE / MUSCLE PAIN - Days 3 to 10, especially bones in thighs, legs and hips and general muscle aches. Worst at day 7 then improving each day until Day 10 when it became no worse than slightly uncomfortable at times. I strongly suspect this was mainly caused by the Zarzio injections needed for 7 days from day 3 (to keep immune system topped up) and maybe the proof will be seen during Cycle 2. Only took paracetamol this time but will take co-codamol (suppied by hospital) if this happens again during cycle 2 which should be more effective.
3.SORE MOUTH / TONGUE - Day 5 noticed discomfort on tongue. I often suffer from mouth ulcers so used my regular over the counter pastilles for a couple of days. However, got worse (with tongue turning grey) so contacted chemo team on day 8, went to see them - small ulcers and thrush. Given Nystan treatment for 7 days and Difflam mouthwash to use as required. Improved by Day 10 and cleared by Day 16. (At subsequent meeting with Consultant on 18th July was told the Dexamethasone steroids can cause this and if it happens again dose will be lowered). MY BIG MISTAKE - I left it too long to consult chemo team and could have shortened the episode by 3 days or so If I had acted quickly. Will know better if there's a next time!
4. APPETITE - generally pretty good. Became a only slightly impaired on Day 4, ate very little on Day 5 but improved again from Day 6 and back to normal by Day 12. Probably not helped by sore mouth making eating painful anyway.
5. HAIR - started to thin on Day 16 and continues to drop a little each day. It's only thin now, not too bad and I think made better by my having a chemo hair cut at the start (I think these are now called no. 2, 3, 4 etc. cuts but when I was a lad this would have been a crew cut or, in my later teenage years in the skinhead era a suede cut). Maybe this stopped it falling out in lumps. Have bought a couple of beanies and caps ready for later just in case (head laso feels cold when out on cool mornings so a covering is needed).
That's about it for the first cycle, not too bad really. Let's hope things continue with nothing worse.
