Six months chemotherapy following surgery and stoma - questions and general moaning!

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Good morning folks:

I had my first cycle of 12 chemo over the next six months (Folox at cancer unit and fluorouracil by pump at home) I know it's early days but lord it's grim, I get it's potentially saving me, I get there are younger people way worse off ... but ... today is finding me very low. Everything tastes absolutely vile - can anyone tell me whether it's just a few days or the entire six months? the inability to tolerate cold drinks, same question? does the nausea last more than a few days? If I knew there was likely to be 7days out of 14 that were normal(ish) it would be so much easier to deal with.

It would probably be easier if I could have my dogs back but sadly the district nurse didn't turn up yesterday to disconnect and flush my PICC so it's difficult to manage them with a long line and bottle hanging off my PICC.

I'm sorry to be so very miseryguts when I'm possibly one of the luckier ones with (fingers crossed) a light at the end of the tunnel but I started this year as a happy, healthy 71 year old with an active life and that all changed on 2nd February when a colonoscopy showed the cancer, after imaging it was confirmed that I had a rectal tumour and malignant sigmoid polyp and would have surgery and a stoma. Ten hours of surgery left me battered but I finally started to get back to myself only to be told, after quite a long wait for histology, that I had six months of chemotherapy to go through next. It feels like my whole life has crashed in just a few months and I do send apologies to those of you who may be in a much darker place.

If anyone has any thoughts or answers or suggestions I would be very grateful!!

Take care all

Julie

Combie 9 months ago

Hi Julie,

I'm so sorry that you're feeling rubbish. I have a similar situation to you. I'm 61.. I think! .. I had robotic surgery to remove my rectum and 26 lymph nodes. I have a temporary ileostomy. Only 1 had disease in it. So I am supposed to be commencing adjuvant chemo tomorrow! I'm having fluorouracil only as I have Chronic Kidney Disease. Chemo, cytotoxic drugs impact the kidneys quite badly.

I say supposed because I feel conflicted. Earlier in my life when I was 30 I had another traumatic disease. The thought of losing my hair again, is really bothering me...I seem to be fixating on it which I find so annoying. It's sooo vain!

But I wanted to say to you, there will always be someone worse off than you and me... but you're the one that counts. I was feeling super angry at the weekend... Still am if I'm honest. However, I did an online chat with Macmillan.... Soo helpful. I was almost too angry to speak to someone. It sounds to me though that you're really struggling. Why don't you call one of the nurses here or contact your CNS... That's what they're there for.

I hope you feel better soon.

Jilly x

Gemmary 9 months ago in reply to Combie

Hi, Combie just caught this. I had 30 weeks of IV 5FU and LA and I can say I didn't loose my hair! It thinned a little but basically not much difference. Hope that helps!

CrumpetsOrToast 9 months ago in reply to Combie

Hi Combie

I lost my hair and decided to use it as a great excuse to have a few really different styled wigs, each with their own persona and alta ego name. I also really enjoyed just wearing beanies and caps.

A nice bonus was my legs and armpits were babysoft and hairless without any effort.

So while hairloss isn't idea and not something we want, if it does happen to you, i'd suggest trying to look for ways to make your journey through it more endearing to you.