Chemo

Hello Anac-C

I am sorry that you find yourself here. Chemo is different for everyone, but there are a few things that help me. Make sure you have plenty of food and drink. Keep the house warm. Skin cream as dry skin can be a side effect. I take a blanket when having the treatment, a book, sweets, crossword. 

Hope this helps.

X

Thank you. I am building up a list  so I have what is needed specially now that it’s quite difficult for my husband to just nip out and get last minute stuff. 

I really appreciate your input. Thanks again

Hello  Sorry to hear this, it must all seem pretty daunting at the moment, especially with a move to cope with.

As flowerlady said, it's different for everyone, but I also need bed socks/gloves as my hands and feet get icy cold, dry crackers for nausea (as well as the meds, which work well) something for mouth ulcers, (I use Difflam mouth wash) an anti histamine and a soothing body lotion for an intensely itchy rash.

Hopefully you won't need any of the above...Best of luck!

xx

AnaC

Welcome to the group, though sorry you have had to join.

For me after the first chemo, i always made sure i had laxatives in the cupboard, as some chemos can cause this problem along with steroids

I always had some ginger in the house, ginger beer, ginger biscuits as this can help with nausea, even though they do give you tablets, but i found ginger beer was a great help, used to have ginger when i was pregnant, which was a long time ago.

I hope this helps.

You can always  ask here if you have any questions you may want answering.

Take Care Elliexx

"You Never Walk A  Lone"

Ginger is a good one! I was always told to keep well hydrated too - I get a craving for blackcurrant cordial. Healthy snacks like nuts are good. And I always make sure I have clean bed sheets to get into on treatment days. I can get a little obsessive ...

Hi Welcome to the group although sorry you have to be here! I haven't had chemo as it doesn't work with my type of cancer but after surgery (& I've had a few) I love my music! My daughter made me a playlist of my favourite songs by different artists and put it onto a CD and also my iPod!   At this moment in time, everything will seem a bit daunting, but especially when you're moving house! What to remember is the doctors don't know everything and as you are being given Chemo to slow down or stop the cancer, I doubt they would offer this if they didn't think it would help.

There are many people, like me, who are well passed their 'selby' date after taking chemo, trial drugs, immunotherapy etc so please don't despair! Where there's life, there's hope. Never give up! Good luck on 6th!

Thank you.my music is all set up already. I just need to make sure everything is in place when I get home after the session. I didn’t have surgery as it had already spread to my liver and bones and wish I still had surgery to remove the tumor as it does hurt when I need to go bathroom (rectal cancer). So I am hoping I get the maximum out of the chemo so the pain goes away. Ofcourse I am also dreading the side effects and also hoping that I wouldn’t have so much of them. But, knowing my luck

Hi

And again welcome from me. I’m sorry you’ve had to join this group but I’m glad you’ve found us. 

Lots of good ideas here and I’d agree with all of them. On the constipation side, I found it helped to take senna or dulcolax to get things moving and movicol to keep things soft. Prevention is better than cure so don’t wait until you have a problem. 

It is unlikely your husband (or anyone else) will be allowed to keep you company with the current restrictions so do take things to keep you occupied and charging cables for your phone or tablet. My chemo day bag (I’ve done it three times - 17 months in total) always included things to do, things to eat and things to keep me warm. The hospital will have blankets but your own soft throw or shawl is nice to have. 

Hydration is important too. If you’ve had plenty to drink before you arrive it will be easier to find a vein. Having plenty to drink after will help flush the dead cancer cells out of your body, help flush your kidneys and help keep your stools soft. 

I hope this helps. Good luck! Keep in touch, eh? 

xxx

Oh dear I didn’t even think to have a day bag. Glad you mentioned that. How long does it take? Don’t they feed us while having chemo or is that a silly question ? Oh I will definitely have my drinking bottle with me as well as lots of goodies then. Are we allowed to drink cold drinks or coffee?

Hi

It all depends on the type of chemo and how long the infusions take. You will be given not just the chemo itself but also drugs to help with side effects such as anti sickness, steroids and antihistamines. Sometimes these come as tablets, sometimes as infusions. So the process for me was something like this: 

Arrive and get settled in a reclining chair 

Height, weight, blood pressure and temperature taken 

Put in a cannula 

Saline drip to flush the line 

Tablets or infusions for drugs to help side effects, up to half an hour eg for steroids. Saline drip for 10 minutes to flush the line 

Chemo, various lengths of time up to four hours for each drug, saline flush 

Remove cannula

So as you can see, it can be quite a long process. My longest days were up to 8 hours in the chair; my shortest were about 4 hours but I did see people have shorter visits.  

The tea trolley came round regularly and the sandwich trolley at lunchtime but I preferred to take my own food and some treats. 

xx