Chemotherapy

Good morning Phil. Good to know you are starting treatment. It can be a long day in the chair so wear loose and comfortable clothing. Take some snacks and drinks and something to keep you occupied (book, tablet, phone etc.) Log on to hospital free wifi. I was advised to get a good quality mouthwash and use regularly as this can help prevent mouth sores. You should be given anti nausea tablets. These need to be taken as prescribed as they help prevent sickness rather than stopping it if it happens. Although you are on a drip all day, most of the time it is just saline solution to keep your kidneys in order. Chemo lounges are usually friendly and upbeat and not all doom and gloom as you may expect. I hope all goes well. Keep us updated. Best wishes.

Hi Rily  thanks for your info it all helps best wishes Phil. 

Hi Phil,Good luck on Monday.Love Jane x

Hi Phil

You'll breeze this. I brought all the stuff that rily suggested but ended up talking to people in the lounge all day. You can eat and drink as you wish. 

Try not to think about any side effects you will get tired that's a given so rest up on tge days you are most tired

Best wishes 

Mark

Hi Jane thank you been a lovely day in Staffordshire today hope its been the same for you x

Hi mark thank you I should be ok my wife says I can talk for England take care phil .

On the first day I was a little apprehensive but that soon wore off. My husband used to take me and, while he had dreaded the thought, he soon found it a good place to be - talking to the nurses as they ran with a smile between patients, chatting with patients and the people with them, going off for walks and getting me stuff from the coffee shop, especially little Italian treats. As he always tells other partners of cancer patients, it's a place where the best of human behaviour can be seen and where you can learn a lot about life and human nature.

I had my treatments - four cycles of Gem/Cis 2 weeks on, 1 off, in a large concrete room in central London so there were always people coming and going. There were beds in bays around the room and that is where they put us newbies but after that there were comfortable chairs and footstools, plus recliners - my grey hair seemed to get me one of those each time. Mt treatments usually took 5 hours. Sometimes people gave me boiled sweets to suck as the drugs can give you a metallic taste.

By the end of chemo my hair had thinned but I wasn't bald, not that I should have minded.

I had terrible constipation at first - helped by lots of broccoli soup (made by husband and daughter) and lots of water and later I stopped taking the anti-sickness tablets - as that's a recognised side-effect of them. I was a bit worried about that as they tell you that you mustn't start being sick because it can be hard to manage it but I never did even just feel sick and a recovered digestion was helpful.

By the last of the 4 cycles I was very tired - During the middle of it all they gave me potassium supplements to help combat one effect of the drugs and also the 2 doses of my course days 1 & 2 were different but I got a bad rash early on so they equalised the dosage which helped (as did steroids from the GP). I am quite allergic to things anyway. 

It killed off most of the cancer cells and they got everything out during the cystectomy so that was good.

  All the best,

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