Hi All
Mum was diagnosed back in March with squamous cell carcinoma, originally the plan was chemo/radio followed by surgery then either more chemo or immunotherapy but a spanner got thrown in the works because we found out she has hypermobility and her oesophagus moves about so radiotherapy wasn’t an option.
She’s got 4 cycles so she goes in for an infusion of Cisplatin on day one then has oral chemo daily for 2 weeks, then a week off then back for the next cycle.
the first cycle wasn’t too bad but towards the end the nausea was relentless and Mum was feeling rather miserable. We got it under control about a day before her next infusion and then 3 days later it returned with a vengeance and she was being sick and just feeling awful. On Monday (day 10 of 2nd cycle)she started spiking a low grade temperature so we went to A&E and had all the tests done, thankfully all her bloods, urine, chest X-ray all looked fine and after some fluids and a preventative dose of penicillin (just in case) she was feeling a bit better. Sadly the nausea was still horrendous and she was struggling to even drink.
We got onto oncology and they’ve layered up her anti nausea and it’s been slightly better today, she was only sick once today but she has no appetite at all and suffered some diarrhoea last night and this morning. Oncology told her not to take her chemo Tuesday night nor today to try and help get the nausea under control and to resume if the diarrhoea resolves tomorrow.
im just so worried about her, I expected chemo to be rough but not this rough, she’s barely moved out of her bed this 2nd cycle, she feels exhausted, looks so pasty, is struggling to eat anything (thank god for her feeding tube but we even had to unplug that last night because of the diarrhoea at 3am) and even drinking has been a struggle.
i think they might lower her dose for the next cycle but of course then you worry what if it doesn’t work.
ive got 3 brothers but they’re not overly helpful, Mum is living with me so I’m full time caring for her (whilst trying to work full time from home) and I’m so frightened, what if I don’t make the right call on something, should she be feeling this bad, how much battering from the chemo is acceptable. Will we ever get the nausea under control, is it only going to get worse as we’re not even quite halfway through. I’m just hoping Mum picks up a bit on her week off from the chemo.
i just feel so helpless, I don’t know how to make her feel better and I hate seeing her suffering like this. It feels like every day there is a new symptom/problem. Yesterday her temperature dropped to 34.7 for half an hour, we got it back up but all these things are frightening when they happen and you don’t know why.
