Week Off

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Hi, new on here and first post.

My husband is just finishing his second week of chemo after a recent diagnosis of T4 bowel cancel with a secondary in the liver and some tiny tumours in the peritoneum.

So far side effects have been OK, some tingling/ hyper sensitivity to cold things but with cotton gloves he’s got through the first week and this week seems to be coping with the odd nap.

My question is regarding next week, the week off meds. Will he feel better? Can we have friends over, does life feel normal for a few days before the 2nd cycle starts?

Kareno62 over 4 years ago

Hi Tweed and a warm welcome to the board from me. Generally you feel a bit better on your week off and the cold sensitivity lessens but as the cycles get further on then you might find that the tingling is there in the week off as the chemo effect accumulates. It’s a good idea to keep a bit of a diary and then you might find that a bit of a routine appears that you can plan round. If he has any steroids to take then there’s often a couple of wide awake nights followed by a crash but you can anticipate this and work around it.

Having friends over is a great idea. It’s easy for cancer to take over everything so to do something ‘normal’ is a great boost. Get the ‘how are you feeling’ out of the way and then try and have a normal time. My friend once said she felt guilty complaining about her rotten cold when I was going through ‘so much worse’ but I assured her I wanted our coffee and catch up to be like usual and her not feel like she had to watch what she was saying.

Hope hubby continues to cope well with his treatment

Take care

Karen x

Macmillan Support Line - 0808 808 00 00, 7 days a week between 8am-8pm

Tweed over 4 years ago in reply to Kareno62

Thank you.

FormerMember over 4 years ago

Hi Tweed, I am female and 46 years old and currently on 4th cycle of oral capecitebane tablets. (I am not sure which medication your husband is on.) My first cycle went fine, 2 weeks of meds then one week off. The second cycle I experienced very much as you mention, some tingling and sensitivity. This, for some strange reason, was only happening to my right hand. I bought gloves for washing up, I now never wash up without gloves. I was also prescribed a cream by my oncologist. My fingers were also a bit swollen and discoloured, they did not look as they usually do. Because it was a bit painful and mostly because I was surprised at how they looked, the oncologist saw me, inspected them and suggested I take a week off the meds ( so I had a 2 week break, instead of 1). This seemed to help a lot. The cycle following this went fine and my fingers improved a lot. I am now on 4th cycle and still experience a bit of tingling in the same hand, but it is very manageable. I just keep telling myself that really, if this is the only side-effect I experience, it really is not that bad at all! Everything else, bowel movements etc are going good. On my week off the meds, I just try to relax a bit with my diet etc ... I feel the same throughout so not much difference on how my body feels.

Hope that helps a bit and all the best to your husband with his treatment.