Endometrial cancer - post op adjuvant therapy

Hi Pinkroses. Hope you are recovering well from surgery.

i did 25 lots of radio with 2 lots of concurrent chemo (Cisplatin) late Jan to early March this year, followed by 4 lots of Carboplatin/packitaxel in March to May. The key for me was not thinking too far ahead, I said to oncologist before I started the treatment I didn’t want to discuss the further chemo until I had got the radio out of the way.

what have they suggested for you and what order?

Hi thank you. I only found out yesterday that I will be going down this route. I’ve not had the oncology appt yet. It is due within the next couple of weeks. Did you cope well with your treatment. It seems a lot in one go. How are you now ? I hope you are well and recovered x

I coped reasonably well with the radio and Cisplatin, it’s just a pain having to go into hospital each day but you sort of get into a routine. You will have a pre radio scan, where your bladder needs to be so full, and from this they model how to zap you, this can take 2/3 weeks to organise. Then for each zapping you need to have bladder full to the same amount. You will be asked about 30 mins before each zapping, to drink about 500 ml of water. So at this point I would go to loo, and then drink my water.  Even then there were days when bladder wasn’t full enough or too full, so need to drink more or pee a bit away….never thought I would be asked to do that! 

The actual zapping is fine. They do warn you that fatigue builds up and you’ll start feeling this around weeks 3 or 4, and can continue to get worse for up to 2 weeks afterwards, I found this happened to me in week 4 after I had my second lot of Cisplatin, but improved quickly once I had finished.

You will also be asked to have a very bland diet, minimal fibre, but you need to keep calorie intake up, so first time I got told I needed to eat more cake!

I found the further chemo tougher, not sure if this was because I did it after the radio, but you do get into a routine of knowing how it impacts your body and everyone can have different effects. Key here is, you will be given a 24 hour number to call, and call it if you have any concerns, as they have various meds to help you. Also key is making sure you monitor your temperature daily.

You will be looked after, I had a pre radio chat with nurse who explained everything, and any issues you can raise with radiographers, and you will have a weekly review. Before chemo I also attended a pre chemo workshop where they explained a lot.

Oh and yes thank you, I have recovered reasonably well, had a few bowel issues to start with, but there has been a marked improvement. Just want my hair to grow a bit faster!

Hi. Thank you so much for this. It’s good to know you coped well. I’m glad you are doing ok too. I have been using Argan oil on my hair and it’s grown so long past my mid back. It seemed to make it grow quicker. So I hope I don’t loose mine but I guess it’s inevitable with these treatments. Thank you once again. I appreciate your time in replying xxx

Argan oil. I found this thickened and made my hair grow quicker.  Mine was snapping and falling out with the stress of the build up to surgery xx