Feeling well with chemotherapy

Hi Myrtlegirl

Welcome and sorry to hear you’ve been diagnosed with breast cancer. While I won’t say it was all plain sailing when I had my chemo I mostly felt ok. I went for a walk everyday which definitely helped. If you are feeling anyway sick during treatment don’t hesitate to ring your oncology team and they will sort you sort you out with different medication if you need it.

Wishing you the best of luck with your treatment when it starts later this month.

Best wishes

Daisy53

Hi, my experience was also ok. I worked throughout treatment and only had a few hours off each cycle. I took the anti sickness meds whether I needed them or not and this helped.   I think everyone is different and I know I was pretty luck with manageable side effects.  Best of luck 

Hi there

I would say it all depends on your system. For me it was definitely not easy. It is tough but it is doable. After your first round you know what to expect a bit more and that means you will feel more in control. 

It seems like a long road but before you know it, you will be through it. There are also lots of medicines and support available to help you cope. Make use of the 24 hour phone line if you are worried and keen a diary of all side effects to discuss with your onco. They can adjust medication accordingly.

The first 10 days for me were the worst but then you pick up and regain your strength. 

Trust the process and trust your team. You will be okay and get through it. Just remember that chemo works and that is why we do it.

Best of luck

Wendy

Thanks for the replies everyone. Reassuring to hear other experiences. Irishgirl16, I'm hoping to work also but will have to see how things pan out I guess. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst I think. Xx

What regime are they giving you? I was on EC-T (sometimes still called FEC-T), 3 weekly cycles, and I found the EC mostly OK, I tended to have a bad week, an OK week and a good week. I walked every day and was slow jogging by day 10. I was one of the unlucky ones that vomited after my first cycle and it is very hard to stop so I had to be hospitalised. After that they gave me even stronger anti-sickness which did the trick. Because I had that experience, I let myself do very little for the first few days after each cycle to give my body a chance to process it.

I also worked from home throughout treatment and on EC, I was back working on Day 6. I would say I had 4 days of feeling a bit rough, day 5 suddenly feeling much better and then able to work from day 6.

I found docetaxel (the T) much tougher and it just completely wiped me out. I tried to work on about day 7 but just couldn't. That first cycle I wasn't able to work again until day 10. My oncologist didn't like how long it made me feel like that so reduced my dosage for my final 2 cycles, which was better though still tough. I was able to work from day 7 after that. I couldn't run on docetaxel, my legs and muscles felt like jelly and I felt breathless and dizzy just walking 100 metres.

Chemo affects everyone differently but most people seem find it very doable. Even though I felt totally poisoned and that first cycle of docetaxel, I really did feel like my body was under attack, I also knew that the body is tough and will bounce back. It is also worth remembering that they want to know all about any side effects as they can usually give you something to help. I suffered from terrible constipation the first few days so they give you things to help.

I would really recommend keeping a diary of symptoms, side effects, what you can do each day etc - I found that so helpful to look back and think 'I was feeling this bad last time on day x, but then I was ok by the next day' and that turning out to be true. Although each cycle was slightly different for me, the EC and the docetaxel followed their own general pattern each time.

Chemo is cumulative, so you tend to feel more and more tired out as it goes on. Your bloods are at a lower and lower starting point each time too - I only just made my last cycle on time and no more as my white blood count was very low. 

I definitely 'felt' the effects of chemo, it was not a pleasant experience but it is doable and I was willing to take everything they threw at me to help my chances of it not coming back so for me, it was definitely worth it. I had chemo before lumpectomy and so could see that it was shrinking, which was a real boost. I'm also mid-40s so think the regime is pretty gruelling the younger you are as they really want to blast it and they think your body can handle it!

Good luck with it

Well, I have had plenty of chemo. Sometimes I was completely fine, sometimes I completely wasn't, even when nothing changed in the treatments themselves. At some point when things really went too far they reduced the dose and it stabilised, so although I did not have the same level of stamina as before, my stomach was able to keep in whatever I put in it, and I was functional around the home at least partially. Now I am on a different type of chemo, and it's a different story. I had my first treatment on this new chemo in mid December, things were fine for a few days, then I landed in A&E for a few hours and took several days to start feeling relatively human again, but 5 days later I was sitting in my oncologist's office telling him I was feeling fine. Second treatment was on the 30th, so far it's going relatively ok.

As other have said, it depends both on the patient's own system and on what chemo they are on. Your oncologist's words sound encouraging so I am hoping he will be proven right!