Bad reaction to first chemotherapy session

Hi To cry,

Thanks for getting in touch with us and welcome to our online community. I hope you find it a helpful and supportive way to communicate with others. My name is Joanne and I’m one of the Cancer Information Nurse Specialist’s on the  Macmillan Support Line

I’m sorry to hear that you have had a bad reaction to your first chemotherapy and was hospitalised for 5 days. You don’t mention if the reaction was whilst the chemotherapy was administered or if the reaction was severe side effects. Here at the Macmillan Support Line, we can give general advice and support. We are independent from the NHS and don’t have access to medical records so can’t give personalised information. I will try to explain what may happen in both scenarios.

If you had a reaction when you were given the chemotherapy your consultant will need to consider if it is safe to give you the same treatment again. Sometimes it is possible to have medications such as steroids or antihistamines added to your treatment plan to try to stop a reaction happening or reduce the severity. If, despite these steps, they feel you will still be at risk, they may stop the chemotherapy and look to change to a different chemotherapy or treatment. This should be discussed with you at your next appointment and then, when a decision has been made, they will arrange your next chemotherapy appointment.

If your reaction was due to side effects of the chemotherapy, for example reduced immunity and infection or nausea and vomiting, they are more likely to look at how they can manage your side effects and keep you on the current treatment. This may be by reducing the dose of the chemotherapy or giving other drugs to treat the side effects.

It’s common for there to be delays in chemotherapy treatments for many reasons and it’s important not to see it as a setback. Everyone responds and reacts to treatment differently, what is important is to be on the best treatment for you at the dose that suits you as an individual.

I wonder if you might benefit from giving our support line a call. We often find we can explain our answers in a bit more detail over the phone, giving you the opportunity to ask more questions if needed. It can be very overwhelming not knowing how things might affect you moving forward. And although we can’t tell you exactly what to expect, we can help explain what usually happens for most people in a similar situation.

If there is anything else we can help you with please, feel free to get back in touch.

Best wishes

Joanne, Cancer Information Nurse Specialist

You can also speak with the Macmillan Support Line team of experts. Phone free on 0808 808 0000 (7 days a week, 8am-8pm) or send us an email.

Ref/ JF/EM

I reacted to the chemotherapy 3 days later which caused an infected bowel. They managed to get it under control with strong antibiotics through an I V line, avoiding surgery which had been discussed. I am still on two lots of antibiotics and will have been on them for ten days when I finish tomorrow. I have never experienced pain like that before. I just don’t know if it’s all worth having chemo for if you are so ill 3 weeks later. X