Hello, 4 weeks into treatment

Hello Betty62 (Sue) and a warm welcome to the forum, though sorry you have to be here, Though i have anal cancer i am unable to offer any advice on chemotherapy but I can wish you good luck with yours and your tests and appointments, take care'

Eddie

Hello Betty62

Welcome to the forum, although I am sorry that you had to come here.  Just about everyone on the forum has gone through this treatment and can completely empathise with the soreness and the fatigue.  This will probably peak around two weeks after treatment, but you will no longer have those daily hospital visits and can concentrate on resting and recovering at home.

You have done amazingly well, just another week and a half to go - mark off those days.  There are some people on the forum who had an extreme reaction to chemo right at the beginning of treatment and just had the radiotherapy.  You may find that in a couple of days your platelets will be back up again and they will continue.  But if not, talk it over with a member of the team treating you - I am not an expert on what happens in a case like yours but I am sure they will be able to reassure you.

I am hoping that others who had your experience will answer and put your mind at rest.

Please let us know how you get on.

Irene xx

Hi Sue, 

I was advanced stage 3 T4 N1 I started the same treatment had the chemo infusion the first day with radiotherapy and tables there after, however 4 days in to the treatment I was rushed in to hospital with  suspected heart attack spent 6 days in the cardiac care unit had all the tests angiogram etc turned out to be the chemo so had to stop it so all I ended  up with was the radiotherapy, I was really worried that I was only having half the treatment and spoke to My oncologist about my fears of only having half the treatment, he told me that the radiotherapy wad my main treatment the chemo was just to mop  things up and not to worry. 

Im doing  fine I’m nearly 2 years post treatment and still in remission. 

Laura x

Thank you. 

Thank you Irene, the support of the forum means a lot it's a bit of a lonely place we find ourselves in.

Sue 

Thank you Eddie. 

Thank you Eddie, I wouldn't although it's awful that other people are going through this, I'm glad you're there.

Sue 

Thank you Eddie, although it's awful that you're going through this, It's good to have the community there.

Sue

Hi Laura,

I'm sorry you've been through it but you've really put my mind at rest I was so worried. Thank you for replying. 

Sue

Hi Betty62  & welcome to the Macmillan Online Community although I’m sorry you’ve had the need to find us. As has already been mentioned there’s a few of our members that have had to stop the chemo side of the treatment due to either platelet or cardiac issues. Rest assured the radiotherapy is the mainstay of the treatment, from what I understand the particular chemotherapy we’re given is a cell division inhibitor opposed to curative on its own. The people I’m aware of that have continued with radiotherapy alone have had successful outcomes so try not to worry, you’ve managed the lions share of your treatment with the chemo on board so that’s a positive & I’m sure your oncologist will keep a close eye on your bloods & start it back up again if possible. 

Anal cancer is one of the rarer cancers & because of the nature of the beast so to speak means it’s not spoken about openly, so this forum really was a blessing for me where we all have this unfortunate thing in common & we could all discuss bottoms, toilet habits & the like freely without embarrassment. 

I hope the next couple of weeks pass quickly for you & you’re soon on the road to recovery. I also hope we’ve managed to ease a few of your concerns. 

Nicola