Half way through chemo

Talk to your care team about the side effects. I recently did this and decided on a dose reduction which has been profound. I have actually caught myself walking around and thinking to myself that I feel normal! Good luck  

Thank you. Are you comfortable to share how much it was reduced by? Would love to feel normal again. Also am concerned that reducing dose may reduce its effectiveness?

Hi there, I, too, am new to here, the group none of us ever expected to join! I've written my long BC story you can look at so won't repeat myself ( still blaming the old 'chemo fog' for that though finished a few months ago!). As you'll see I, too, had the joys of right hemicolectomy which biopsies showed i had stage 3 with lymph node involvement so had the chemo for 3 months. Hideous and brutal treatment for sure but it works & my latest colonoscopie showed I'm currently clear ( would prefer monthly ones to keep reassurance but can't sadly!).. What side effects are you struggling with if you don't mind me asking as have battled a few myself when going through it so know a little sadly? Keep going as hard as it is, it's extremely tough but effective,  take care & here to chat x

I got my chemo dose reduced from 100% to 80% and helped massively with exhaustion x

Thank you. Good to know you are clear. Like you, I’m stage 3 with 9 of 35 lymph nodes cancerous, 10cm tumour removed and now 3 months chemo. Today is a good day, so am focusing on that. Bad days I have numerous side effects including nausea, belly ache, diarrhoea, dizziness and the cold sensitivity which gives me muscle cramps. Also have phlebitis in veins from infusion. The hospital have given pills to combat some of the side effects but the generalised felling so unwell is what gets me down. Sorry to sound moany, especially as am having such a good day today. 

You don't sound moany at all, it's totally appropriate! There are good/ better days during treatment I found. And how we relish them! I found the first week was tough, I had infusions every Monday a fortnight,  then discharged home that day connected to a chemo pump which was weird. HATED my picc line, showering a drama needing to cover it, etc, but we get through. Then would have to return to macmillan unit where had my treatment after 48 hours on pump for them to disconnect it. The district nurses would call that week to flush picc line,  they were wonderful. I'd then learn that the weekend to come was going to be grim. I joked ( humour essential in this, often inappropriate!), was in chemo coma those days, but that's what felt like. The exhaustion overwhelming,  could barely do anything,  every fibre felt exhausted. But the week after,  I'd have a good day or two and did some nice things, just gentle self- care like spa treatments/ hair trim ( try not to get too distressed about thinning, it's hard but not as bad as breast cancer treatment,  was so thankful and felt so awful seeing women in sessions with none).

The peripheral neuropathy to fingers and feet was hard. I now have an extensive glove collection. Use them, it helps. Sisters bought me heated ones, foot warmers, etc. It's so odd. Sadly, I'm still struggling with that though finished treatment in May. My feet are awful, this can apparently go on for a year post treatment & sometimes is permanent damage. Just yesterday GP started me on Pregabalin for it as worried driving as  can't wear shoes while driving as so numb can't feel pedals. My advice is don't struggle with any symptoms,  your GP/ oncology nurse/ cancer unit will have heard them all before and there's solutions to them all. I had little nausea but buckets of different antiemetics given I never used, keep trying them as some better than others and these days you shouldn't struggle with side effects, there's treatment for them all.

I think there's differing chemo drugs, different strengths and I had to reduce mine to 80% as said as just too overwhelmed with exhaustion,  so may be worth discussing that. I worried wouldn't be as effective but they reassured me it would and my colonoscopie recently proves it ( not that I still don't quietly panic re prognosis/ recurrence,  now always will but just have to hope). Take good care & here to chat x