Chemoradio starts tomorrow!!

Yes, good luck Allthecolours.  I'm sure you'll be in good hands with your hospital team bearing in mind your other health problems.  Do ensure you communicate with them if you encounter any difficulties at all so they can help you and maybe involve other teams if need be.

Keep in touch.

Linda x

It'll pass very fast my friend if my experience is anything to go by, you're just kept in a constant repetitive cycle that becomes your normal routine; your existing issues are obviously not going to be helpful but I've every confidence you'll be back in a couple of months time reflecting on it all.

But keep us informed in the meantime and ask anything you like; remember there's no such thing as a silly question (apart from maybe, "...how did Donald Trump get to lead the free World?").

Thanks so much, Linda. The surgical staff just did not get my drug interaction problems and I had to resort to walking around with a letter from my rheumatologist.  But the oncology staff? They are angels. They listen and understand and care. I love them all already! ️

Hi

You'll take it day by day and it will pass.

You should have lots of support and don't be afraid of asking for whatever you need. I found the RT staff were my first port of call on the days I wasn't seeing the nursing team or the oncology registrar. (I didn't see my consultant till the first check up after treatment, but his registrar was lovely. The RT team can relay what is needed and I found I had my prescriptions etc etc the following day.

It's difficult to cover everything you might encounter in one post so please ask away as problems arise I would say is get decent pain relief. It will make you feel more in control and less abandoned. 

You'll get pretty tired so rest up, snooze but try to get out for a few minutes into the fresh air....even if you feel totally knackered.

You'll get there

Thank you, MikeO,

This is a great comfort. It never entered my head that time would fly during chemoradio!

Unfortunately I’ve been ruined by dreadful drug reactions following my GAs for the panendoscopy and PEG (think Exorcist but with nurses instead of priests). Still, I will have good people with me tomorrow as the chemo goes in. The radiotherapy beforehand will be a doddle because I have a poppy-rocky playlist that gets the radiographers bopping round the table, so my main issue will be trying not to jiggle about beneath the mask in time to the music.

Onward!

My experience with the staff also, so many wonderful people that I almost became grateful for my diagnosis because I'd not have met these life enhancing people had I not had had cancer. Loved them all to bits; notably my dietitian (mentioned this before so turn off now if you've heard the story before) who could have been an identical twin to my "first love" from when I was 17 to 20. Was really spooky when I first met her but she was, as you say, an angel. She disappeared for a while on maternity leave and I was consumed by jealousy because I wasn't 35 years younger and able to steal her away! 

Love the Exorcist comparison on the tube installation Allthecolours, to quote directly from my bog at the time (just my experience, many find it very easy)...

"First part of this is a naso gastric tube stuck up your nose, down the throat an into the stomach to inflate stomach for the RIG to be fitted. Worst experience, by far, of this whole process. They can't give anaesthetic or sedation because they need for you to "swallow" it when asked.....absolute f***ing nightmare! Choking, vomiting and crying ensued.....and that was just the surgeon! I was far worse....uncontrollable full body shaking, just awful. Luckily once it was in they could give me s***loads of sedation and local and the actual insertion of the tube (and the removal of the naso gastric) was pain free. Never again!

Home....hmmm....over confidence or nonchalance maybe, went to bed Friday night without bothering to take any pain killers because it was a breeze, right? Wrong in spades! Woke up at five in indescribable pain, I say indescribable but I did in fact describe it in many and varied four letter words (few of which were "ouch"). I woke Deb, took two co-codomol and cried on her shoulder on the settee for about half an hour before it eased off. We had a deep conversation during this time which consisted of me saying "Sorry" and her saying "Stop apologising!"

Anyway, the lesson learned from that is always to play on the safe side with drugs....if you're prescribed them, take the damn things."

Yes, I hang onto your every word, MikeO (!), so I had boxes of paracetamol and ibuprofen ready (always works for me) so I didn’t do the waking up in agony thing. Poor you!

Heaven and Earth was moved to get the PEG fitted in the week before I started chemo (pre-op assessment in one hospital and op in another), so I had time to recover ready for pain-free puking tomorrow. #smallmercies

Good luck for the coming 7 weeks, this time will soon go by. Take things 1 day at a time, and you will be fine. Remember you are in the best hands, who have your best interests in mind. Always tell your team if you have any worries or pain, they will do all they can for you.

All the very best to you.

Regards Ray.

Beesuit, thank you thank you thank you!

I had forgotten about pain relief. And “less abandoned” is a great phrase (I’m a poet).

I will remember to force myself into the park over the road each day.

xx