Chemotherapy Starts Tomorrow

My husband had the same chemo and was fine with it, although everyone is different.  He had a little bit of diarrhoea but took tablets to manage that and he found food a bit tasteless but didn't lose his appetite.  Apart from that he was fine although did get tired towards the last of his great.  Good luck and stay strong.

Thank you so much for your prompt and reassuring reply.

Valerie 

Your fine for a couple of days after each treatment, I lost my appetite as everything I ate and drunk had a horrible metal taste I lost a couple of stone, my finger nails & toe nails discoloured and some turned black.

And during the middle of each treatment for a week or so I had no energy and of course lost all of my hair.

Hope it goes well for you.

Hi

The effects usually start two days after the chemotherapy, he will definatly be tired and fatigued, also his taste buds may change, there are lots of other effects depends how things go with him.

I must point out though his Tempreture is paramount, you should take it at least twice a day morning and evening if above 38 or below 36 he needs to get to hospital as his blood cell count will be pretty low and catching an illness is easily done.

Hope he gets through it ok

Joe

HI Valerie

I recently had chemo following TURBT.  I   had Mitomysin.  

There were side effects but they were OK.  Just feeling off colour for a couple of days. No problem. 

Good luck

Regards

David

Hi Valerie.

I understand how you feel. My husband has had 5 out of 6 Docetaxal infusions every 3 weeks.

The first and secound one, not bad just extremely tired. He was still able to go to work everyday. I shaved his hair before third chemo.

The third one was hard on him. He had a lot of cough, runny nose, bad headache for 2 days, and very bad nauseas. It took him about 3 to 4 days to feel ok.

The 4 and 5 chemo he did ok, just a bit of nauseas, fatigue.

He's been able to ate fairly well. He's also taking Lupron, Zytiga and Prednisone.

Also I ice his feet and hands during the hour of chemo.  This so far has help a lot and he hasn't developed Neuropathy.

I wish you both the best. You will make through.

Hi Valerie, 

I'm on no. 4 of 6 so far. The side effects were as follows. Usually 3-4 days after chemo

Runny nose, head aches, joint and bone ache. Diarrhea. Foul tasting food. Fatigue and tiredness.

After the 2nd and 3rd session some got better, some got worse. Nausea and dizzy spells appeared, for this reason I stayed off work. I also lack concentration and can fall alseep during the day. As you can tell we all react differently. I also have horrendous hot flushes from the hormone treatment and voracious appetite from the steroids! I'm eating more and putting weight on.

Hope this helps and good look.

John. 

Ps you can read my profile for the medical jargon.

Thank you to everyone who has replied.

My husband had his first dose of chemotherapy yesterday. I believed there has been a mix-up with his steroids which makes me wonder if he will suffer more side-effects.

I pointed out to the nurses that he hadn’t been prescribed the Dexamethasone 8mgs twice a day for three days around this first treatment and was told firstly that it wouldn’t matter because he had been taking 2mgs daily since December. I persisted in saying I was concerned and they said they would contact his Oncologist and telephone us at home.

I rang the unit a couple of hours later and it seemed that his Oncologist was out of the country and not replying to emails or telephone calls. It still seemed difficult to get the nursing staff to understand what I was saying about the lack of steroid cover for this first dose but, eventually, they did and told me that he should take the Dexamethasone 8mgs last night and twice today. That, unfortunately, still means he has missed half of the steroid cover for this chemotherapy dose this time so I am concerned about what the implications might be. We will have to wait and see.

Did all of you have steroid cover for your first dose of chemotherapy?

Valerie

Hi again. Yes I take  2 x5mg daily. Prednisone, continuously through treatment. 

4 x 2mg twice a day Dexamethasone. For three days, the day begore chemo the day of chemo and the day after chemo.  

But we are all different.

Hope this helps... Good luck

John

There was a thread on here fairly recently about sucking pineapple to avoid losing taste.  Everything is worth a try.