Portacath and first round of chemo

my resting heart rate has risen since the beginning, making a few things quickly tiring, before any chemo it was around 60 give or take, now its like 74 ore more, and some days watch says 80. now i dont wear the watch every day nor all day, so i try not to stress and have mentioned to dr who seemed nonplussed by it. at the end of the first four doses my heart seemed to race a lot. on taxol it races less i feel. i know another woman who says her watch frequently has her in fat burning territory just sitting and working sometimes. am looking forward to it settling after chemo.

i think the concern about the swimming pool is more about picking up a bug from others like a cold or flu rather than the water or port.

They deffo want you to avoid swimming pools because of the risk of infections in the pool and around people. Not worth the risk. Deffo don’t swim in the sea I’d say too - this time of year, if there’s heavy rainfall, all the rainwater run off carries all the bird/fox/dog poo off the beach into the sea

Thanks for that re heart rate… yea think I’ll take my garmin off!!  

Yep think will have to stick to yoga & walking …. Thanks all x

Not sure if you may have read my post (portacath inserted last week), but please read the bigger side note at the end about the antisickness meds they give… save yourself the risk of the horror of my first round of chemo… they gave me Ondansetron antisickness drug and I had to take 1 tablet daily at home for a few days after too. I had horrendous constipation from it, it slows your intestinal tract … I could barely eat or sip drinks, had terrible lower abdominal pain, couldn’t pass a motion for days, then agonising 10 times a day trying after that with all the chills and pains caused by endless loo visits. I lost half a stone in a week and felt so weak…. So, on my second chemo they swapped me to Akynzeo … a single and more gentle antisickness drug, one tablet lasts 5 days. I’ve had no nausea. They gave me Laxido drink sachets to keep motions soft. I feel like a different person. My usual toilet habits are restored, I can eat and drink normally. So please request Akynzeo to save yourself from what I went through. (When they did my portacath op last week, it turned out they’d given me one Ondansetron tablet for the surgery … I couldn’t go to the toilet for two days after that just one tablet, that set me back … so ask for Akynzeo at your portacath surgery too). Good luck. 
7 days in and my portacath bruising and soreness is lessening too! 

x

That is good to hear a less traumatic experience I am so nervous of starting chemo as I’m worried about feeling bad and traumatising my kids. It’s all so dramatic and I hate drama especially about myself. I feel constantly like I’m over reacting, over stressing and yet outwardly I hardly talk about it as I don’t want to cry and get upset in front of anyone. I generally save that for the middle of the night when everyone’s asleep. I can not sleep I’m averaging about 3 hours a night. 

Im hoping that once I start treatment I might start to calm down. 

I have my Portacath on Monday then first chemo on Thursday. I’m planning on taking a couple of weeks off work after chemo to see how I feel and perhaps get some rest.   But I also worry that too much time on my hands will give me too much time to think.

there I go again over stressing. feel like I’m losing my mind

Lots of great info there thanks Debbie I’m feeling that overall the portacath will be better but initially it’s a bit more uncomfortable. My cancer is in the right breast and portacath will on the left. I have heard that it takes about a week to settle down so hopefully yours will be feeling better soon. X

i feel overwhelmed with the list of drugs I normally don’t take anything other than the odd paracetamol so seeing the list of 2 targeted drugs for the her2 and then 2 chemotherapy drugs then the anti sickness, steroids etc etc and worrying about sickness, diarrhoea, constipation, infection, sepsis. I mean my god no wonder I can’t sleep.

I’m going to take a couple of weeks off work after chemo in order to see how I feel and take some pressure off. My job is pretty full on and I do like it so it’s kind of hard to step away but it’s for the best I know.

I will come back and check the drugs they give me against your list and take note of side effects. Thank you for that. 

hope the swelling goes down and you can get some sleep soon. X

Hope you’re starting to see some improvement after your immune therapy incident codfish that’s shit after all you’ve been through. 

great news on the swimming I’m going to try that once the portacath heals and if chemo impacts are not as bad as I’m stressing about. 

keep on keeping on you’ll be back running soon x

Hi teddy. I had my cancer chat today ahead of chemo starting next week and they mentioned about the chemo affect building over time so it might be that you need to find some less cardio related exerses. Perhaps yoga or Pilates. Shame about swimming because that feels like it would be relaxing unless of course your aiming for your personal best front crawl.

take it easy. Go for a walk after the rain, I read an article about how walking after the rain builds your immune system. Worth a try. 

Hang in there we are with you x

In my chat today they made a point of saying I could swim with my portacath, conflicting information isn’t helpful is it. I’ll wait and see how I feel after it’s fit but agree it seems like swimming pools could be a magnet for bugs.