Not been on this site for a while as been focussing on trying to get back up to full fitness again, and trying to forget about the last 12 months of my life now that treatment has finished.
That being said, i had to get back to this blog and update the story in case anybody has been tracking progress whilst going though the same thing. I will summarise my thoughts about the treatment in one post now we are a few months on.
Chemotherapy comes in many forms depending on the type of cancer you have. A friend of mine has just had six (6) rounds of chemo for breast cancer....after my experience with two rounds of carboplatin I only have the highest respect (and sympathy) for those having such impactful treatment.
That isn't to say that my experience of carboplatin was so terrible - it wasn't. But the fact that I only had relatively mild chemotherapy, and only two rounds, made me realise what it might be like to have more of something stronger!
My personal experience of carboplatin in hindsight wasn't too bad. For the first round, the worst bit by far was the administration of the chemo, not because that was particularly bad, but because it was the most stressful part as I didn't know what to expect. My previous post details that, bit of an anti-climax happily.
The first round wasn't bad at all. I went straight from my hospital appointment to a two week family (and friends) camping trip (first half of which was in the rain). I stuck religiously to my drugs regime as prescribed by the hospital. I remember sleeping for a whole morning around day 3 or 4 - can't remember which? But apart from that, didn't really feel any ill effects. I may have been tired, but continued to operate normally going on walks, having a few drinks and eating barbecues etc. If I did feel slightly nauseous (in the morning sometimes, but only very mild) I would force myself to eat something and that would fix it.
The camping itself was the biggest disappointment - had rain pretty much every day for the first week. Second week was better fortunately so got some sun in the end - although the doc told me to avoid too much sun as chemo can make your skin more susceptible to burning. Was fine though.
Anyway, came back from camping, and on the day I was due to go back to work (exactly 3 weeks after my first dose) I went in for my second round of carboplatin. This time around the administration was far less stressful as I knew what to expect. The rest of it I didn't expect as, in stark contrast to the first round, this one hit me really hard.
I must have lost the best part of five days of my life to the sofa. During the initial days of (almost literally) being 'stuck' to the sofa I want feeling sick really, just painfully tired, although I would be kind of mobile. To give you an example. One day I remember getting up to make a cup of tea - that exhausted me and I slept for three hours!
This effect continued to a lesser degree each day. I would wake up in the morning feeling absolutely fine - try to do too much and sleep for a couple of hours. One morning I was convinced I had turned a corner, so I dragged myself and the family out for a walk. Got everyone in the car down to the seafront (only a five minute drive fortunately), got out, walked no more than 400 yards, and had to sit down. Fell asleep on the beach.
All of these symptoms are basically pretty mild - no nausea, no hair loss. The only other thing I noticed was that the skin on my feet was cracking and a little painful. Apparently this is a symptom you could get. Strange. Tiredness, although frustrating, isn't difficult to deal with - you just lay back and enjoy the ride.
Anyway, as I said, having known people doing far more treatment than I had, I have huge respect for them, I have only had a taster and, as such, have been very lucky.
It must have only taken me around 4 weeks (from administration of the second dose) to get back to the daily commute on my bike, and maybe a few weeks after that to feel back up to a decent level of fitness again. Now I feel fitter than ever, did just under 100 miles on the bike last week and doing it faster than ever.
What next? I have 5 years of follow up appointments. First one at the end of November, before that I have to go for CT scan, chest x-Ray and blood test. Apparently the frequency of the follow ups should reduce as time goes by. This first one will be three months after the end of my chemo, hoping the next one might be six months after that. Fingers crossed.
Will update the blog on progress
