New member starting chemotherapy this week after surgery

Hi , I’m so sorry you find yourself with this diagnosis. Yep it’s really tough to try and come to terms with it isn’t it. I’m stage 3c HGS , diagnosed in Jan 24. Chemo, surgery, chemo and now just starting maintenance. When I was diagnosed I felt such a sense of loss for the life I knew, I’ve slowly come to accept my new life living with cancer. I have good days rubbish days and days that are just days. I am grateful for the amazing surgeons who managed to remove the visible cancer during surgery and the for the kind nurses on the chemo ward who look after me when I’m there. Being anxious about starting chemo is completely understandable, we can read the long list of side effects but until we start our own experience is unknown. All I can say is for me chemo was way more manageable than I anticipated. Once I knew how it affected me I could plan . First week I was ok , second week tired and nauseous and third week ok again. Nauseous was manageable with anti sickness tablets. Most of all I kept resting when needed and saw this and still do as a priority . I have found online community support so valuable, here and target ovarian and ovacome. I live for today, and continue to dream for the future. For me , taking one day at a time and living in the moment is more manageable than thinking I need to be positive and fight cancer all the time . Best wishes with your ongoing treatment. There is a lot of support out there , your not alone. Take care x

Hi. I’m sorry to hear of your diagnosis. It’s a rollercoaster of a journey. My family and colleagues said I’d be fine because I’m a very positive person - but believe me I have had some good meltdowns at the situation! It is hard.
I welcomed the chemo because I wanted to get on with getting rid of what they could. It was impressed on me that everyone reacts differently and don’t expect to have a bad reaction. I spoke to a couple of women who’d had breast cancer whose experience of chemo was far worst than mine so I stopped asking and just accepted my experience. I’ve been tired and only completely wiped out for a full day a few times. 
I know what you mean about the people who tell you the success stories - but the aim with ours is to get rid of it then manage it. Which is good. I’ve also been told not to read the ovarian cancer statistics which are out of date. Again, we are all completely different in what we have and how we react to treatment. 

I do sometimes wake up and think: I have cancer. And it feels totally unbelievable. So you are not alone by any means x

I echo what others have written below, my heart and empathy are with you as you navigate this. It is hard to contemplate chemo, it is so alien to us, to deliberately put a toxin in our body that is so damaging while being a hopeful life saver. 

However. As you and others have said, the oncology team and chemo nurses are wonderfully caring and the drugs given alongside the chemo do mitigate some of the side effects. You will be given anti nausea drugs and the steroids do take the edge off the pain. The key is to take care of yourself with lots of rest, pain killers, gentle exercise such as walking and enjoying the company of friends and family. The benefit of cancer is it reinforces what it’s important in life. 

A practical note is to keep a diary in an exercise book of what you experienced on each day of the cycle as that will help you understand how you feel for future cycles and help you know what you can do when. 

Best wishes Jackie 

Thank you SEM.24 and FloC really appreciate your messages x

Thanks Jackie,

This has been so helpful for my landing into the world of chemotherapy - I really appreciate your message, validation and advice and am finding myself on a steep learning curve but maybe starting to believe there will be times when it feels manageable and allowing the difficult days when it doesn't and that's ok and will pass.

All best wishes

Robyn