Amy's Guide to Chemo

Family Affair Rattery
Family Affair Ratz

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Amy’s guide to Chemo

I am not a medical professional. I only know what I have read, heard and experienced. Everybody’s body is different, and your responses to the meds may be different, but I thought I could take a moment and share some of what I learned during and about the scary days of chemo.

The first cycle really sucks. You don’t know what to expect, and they can’t tell you everything because they don’t want to plant anything in your head. Remember to call anytime you feel anything weird or new. Chances are it is not more cancer, it is an effect of the drugs given to fight the cancer.
Remember that you feel rotten because you are being poisoned. The great thing is that your body will survive, the cancer probably will not. This makes everything more bearable. Every fight you fight, especially the first week after chemo, is killing cancer cells. It is killing some of the other fast growing cells in your body, but our bodies are amazing creations. Hair will grow back. Intestinal functions will return. Numbness will disappear. Cancer will die. It is discomfort with a purpose.
Hair does grow back. It comes back rich and thick and luscious! It is usually more comfortable to shave it when it falls out in clumps, then shave it the week before chemo for your six cycles. Shaving it one more time when you are finished makes it come back in evenly. Your scalp will feel tingly/itchy sometimes even a little burny when it is about to fall out in clumps again. That will lessen with each cycle, because there will be less to fall out! There is a product called Tend Skin that you can buy in a beauty shop. You can use it right after you shave your head. Hairdressers use it a lot, and it helps soothe the irritated skin on your scalp. After a couple of months you won’t need that anymore either!
The first week of the cycle is generally the worst when you are doing the “big guns” chemo of once every three weeks, but you will find that there are really only a couple of “really bad” days. You need to remember the big picture. A couple of really bad days once every three weeks for 4 ½ months in exchange for a live future. It helps to put it in perspective!
Milk of magnesia, and sometimes colace, are our friends! If your stomach is hurting and you haven’t used the bathroom don’t feel bad about using these things. If you find that you are having trouble the second day, take a colace the night before, you will learn what your body needs to have to help it through the rough time.
Chemo is individualized. There are standard meds that are used (I was on taxol and carboplatin, with herceptin weekly and zometa for the bones monthly) but our reactions to them are different, our tolerances are different. Remember that an occasional reaction is not to be feared, it is your body letting the wonderful people in the oncologist's office know what it can handle. It is frightening for a moment when it is happening, but they really know what they are doing, and are looking out for you every minute. So are all of your chemo brothers and sisters, and we will all call for help if we see that you need it. Know that what you are feeling is frightening for everyone the first time, but indeed everyone has gone through it.
The infusion room is a safe place to fall apart. Read the info. In number 6 again to see why.
You have sisters and brothers in the chemo room. We all care about one another, some of us pray, some of us send good wishes, all of us are cheering for everyone’s successes and weeping for the setbacks.
Take control of what you can. Hair falling out is beyond your control right now, deciding when to shave it off is under your control. You are not in control of your meds right now, but you are in control of your schedule, your daily routine. If someone is coming by and asks is 10:00 is okay, tell them 9:55 or 10:05 is better if you would prefer it. Take control of the little things that you can, because until this disease is beat, you will not have control over a lot of the big things. But the results are worth it.
Remember that chemo is cumulative. You will be pretty tired at by the end of your sixth cycle. Around cycle three or four you may have a tough time. You may not, but I know I did, and speaking to my chemo brothers and sisters, many of them did as well. I just felt a bit more helpless, a bit more hopeless. I remember showing up in tears at church one morning, and a dear friend and cancer survivor walked up to me, put her arms around me, and asked if it was my third or fourth cycle. That's all I needed, to know that this is what can happen! It is normal! Remember that you have something akin to bombs going off in your body, and it is hard. This really is a battle and your fight is for your life. YOU have chosen LIFE! It is a few days of yuck. If it seems too intense, talk to your doctor about a temporary anti-depressant regimen. It is a chemically induced depression and calls for chemical relief to balance you again.
Let your family love you a lot right now. One of the cancer blessings is that one never feels as loved as when people find out they are fighting this disease. Accept it, and know that you are precious to everyone who expresses concern, who calls, who asks a friend or relative how you are doing.

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