Well. Ellie is going for tests tomorrow in order to get the go ahead for oral chemo and I don’t know anything at all about it and I’m interested, then I can understand a bit more about what people like Ellie go through.
Well it's pretty much exactly what it says on the tin. It's chemo you take orally instead of via a drip style. Lol
So at the start of a session you go into hospital for tests to make sure you're healthy enough to cope with the treatment - same as for the intravenous chemo. Then you're given your tablets, and you go home and take them as instructed.
Side effects will vary from drug to drug, as well as person to person, and dose to dose which was why I was asking about what you were looking for specifically as it's such a broad topic with lots of info in lots of areas.
But if you're interested, Macmillan have a list of all the types of chemo and then info on them. You can find it here - www.macmillan.org.uk/.../drugs-and-combination-regimens - and it'll give you more of an idea what everyone on each will be dealing with.
Hope that helps!
Lass
Xx
I have no medical training, everything I post is an opinion or educated guess. It is not medical advice.
This is a whole new world most people know nothing about, nor do they ever wish to know anything about it - until they're in the middle of it all.
There's lots of things I know now that I had no idea about 7 years ago before my diagnosis. But the best way to pick it up is to do as you did and ask questions and read up on whatever is of interest or pertinent.
Lass
Xx
I have no medical training, everything I post is an opinion or educated guess. It is not medical advice.
I don’t have hope. The most important thing to me is that I’m at peace and acceptance. But more than anything, still being able to walk about, eat, drink, go to the cinema, enjoy playing with my cats. Travelling the Uk etc. It’s what you put into your life that counts. And unlike the homeless, I have a roof still over my head. But hope? I kind of lost that when they wouldn’t let my mum come home from the hospital. Mum wouldn’t want me to lose hope.shed want me to pull myself up by the bootstraps! My mum still believes in hope!she’s there with you.
My Consultant said he'd heard oral chemo described as 'chemo light'
I'm on Everolimus which is considered targeted therapy combined with Examestane, a hormone therapy. Chemotherapy can also kill normal cells and is given in high doses, so has many and more severe side effects. Normal cells can survive targeted therapy, but as it's often given in lower doses it tends to slow down rather than kill cancer cells. (I'm only talking about my treatment as it's not on the list)
I couldn't tolerate the full dose of oral chemo. I had a shingles like rash, mouth ulcers and felt completely flattened, my blood pressure went up so much I was dizzy & had nose bleeds. I'm tolerating half the dose and after 6 months the side effects are a lot more manageable. One advantage of the daily dose is wriggle room, you can reduce the dose and have treatment breaks more easily than with IV chemo.
As Lass said, everyone's different but I'm able to do all the things you're talking about on this dose, and have refused to go back onto the full dose at the expense of enjoying life. xx
I think you can have both hope and acceptance. Accept your reality and what you've got going on. But still hope that things could be better, either for yourself, friends, family, or perfect strangers.
For me, for example, I can't walk about like I could before cancer. Which then means I can't just go and jump on a bus or a train and explore the towns and countryside around me. Same for going to the cinema, because rather than walking into town or catching a bus then walking to the cinema, I have to taxi it. Then no longer able to work, has reduced my finances. So a cinema ticket is now at least £9, with £11 taxi to get there and back, it's not an affordable, regular, trip. That taxi journey needs added to everything I want to do, as a minimum. So doing anything on my own is expensive.
On most days I've accepted the above, there are a few days where anger and upset are more prevelant than acceptance of course, but on every day I hope that something might change and get better in my circumstances and health. But instead, different bits of me keep breaking in different ways! Lol
But, and I don't know your diagnosis, that could be the difference between an incurable and terminal mindset.
Lass
Xx
I have no medical training, everything I post is an opinion or educated guess. It is not medical advice.
Have you heard of people like me that have never had the chance of chemo because the cancer was caught too late? But I’d said to the doctors and oncologist that I’d rather have quality than quantity in my life, even if my life is shorter. I know mentally I would never be able to cope with chemo and everything you have said about your side effects proves me right. But mine is can’t be operated on, no chemo, no anything. All my doctor says is pre-emptive , end of life treatment and support. I don’t even look like I have cancer.
