Coping with Chemotherapy

So sorry mrsmopp. Don’t be despondent, but it’s easy for me to say. My neighbour has just been diagnosed with colon cancer. She’s had the operation and is having chemotherapy.
Please keep fighting, for the sake of your family.

There are many cancer support groups on Facebook *mrsmopp^ See if you can find one for your specific cancer. It's a huge help to be able to talk to people with the same problems and undergoing the same treatment. You can ask questions that seem too trivial to bother a doctor with and there will always be someone else awake in the middle of the night.

Not now, but between 2010 & 2013 I had 5 surgeries, chemo & radio.

A nurse gave me a very good bit of advice at the beginning of it all. Handle it one thing at a time. Don't look too far ahead, just to the next step.

It was valuable advice that I followed.

I had chemo in 2014/15 I'll not pretend I found it hard at times my advice is take all the help offered ,listen to your body , drink plenty of water ,if really struggling speak to your nurse or oncologist, take one day at a time you will get there ,good luck !

MrsMopp, ? It must be so hard, I’ve seen friends and family go through it. It is only natural to feel as you do but one day you will be through it. Just keep going.

I have had metastatic breast cancer for 9 years. It’s a hard road. I am so sorry that your are going through this too. I have found that taking it one day at a time, as the other ladies have said is very helpful. I try to stay busy with the grandkids and friends, making very simple quilts, walking and gardening. It gives me something to look forward to. When I’m busy, it keeps me from feeling down. I also joined a cancer support group which has been incredibly helpful. We laugh and joke and cry and pray for each other. I highly recommend a support group. I wish you peace and happiness.

I have just started chemo for lung cancer plus I have liver cancer secondary.. First session was fine and followed by lots of drugs to take at home. I’m told some chemo isn’t actually too bad? My unit is wonderful and the support from macmillan nurses is so good. There is lots of extra help, psychological” counselling, sports activities etc.
my cancer is inoperable and terminal so I shall take anything they can offer me to prolong my life.
I sympathise though with you being exhausted, and hope you can find something to help you through it.

Sorry to hear of your problems OP, and all the others too. My only comment as a husband of a sufferer who's been through chemo twice is to do all you can to avoid any form of pathogen: infections and bugs in certain foods such as raw vegetables and any other possible bug-bearing item. My wife had neutropaenic sepsis when a winter infection took hold and she ended up very poorly in a positive pressure isolation room on IV antobiotics. Good Luck to all.

I was diagnosed with bone cancer last year and have been on Letrazole tablets daily and Palbociclib tablets, on a 3 week on, 1 week off cycle. I do get very tired, but apart from that have no side effects now, although was nauseous while my body got used to the drugs.

InnocentBystander

Sorry to hear of your problems OP, and all the others too. My only comment as a husband of a sufferer who's been through chemo twice is to do all you can to avoid any form of pathogen: infections and bugs in certain foods such as raw vegetables and any other possible bug-bearing item. My wife had neutropaenic sepsis when a winter infection took hold and she ended up very poorly in a positive pressure isolation room on IV antobiotics. Good Luck to all.

Pathogen ? Can you explain a bit more ? Should I not eat raw vegetables?

Lucca I have a close relative currently having Chemo for long cancer and they have been given a long list of what not eat.

I would have a word with your cancer nurse contact

lung cancer not flipping ^long cancer^

GrannyGravy13

Lucca I have a close relative currently having Chemo for long cancer and they have been given a long list of what not eat.

I would have a word with your ^cancer nurse contact^

Yes I have a list I just thought innocent bystander might have some extra insider knowledge!

Ok sorry to learn you are poorly, I was just trying to be helpful

That’s ok !

To you all with cancer - my very very best wishes!

Thanks all for your kind and supportive replies. Appreciated, xx

Sending good wishes to all of you struggling with these treatments. I hope the spring and the summer to come will help you through.

Mrsmopp with my best wishes. Exhaustion is the price paid fir chemo, and hope this time it will result in a good outcome.

Lucca

InnocentBystander

Sorry to hear of your problems OP, and all the others too. My only comment as a husband of a sufferer who's been through chemo twice is to do all you can to avoid any form of pathogen: infections and bugs in certain foods such as raw vegetables and any other possible bug-bearing item. My wife had neutropaenic sepsis when a winter infection took hold and she ended up very poorly in a positive pressure isolation room on IV antobiotics. Good Luck to all.

Pathogen ? Can you explain a bit more ? Should I not eat raw vegetables?

Sorry for the delay. Pathogen is a word I used to cover all possible sources of infection. You should not eat anything that might have bacteria, viruses, fungal growths - anything that will harm you if you have a severely weakened immune system. I asked various people about raw vegetables when my wife was on docetaxel and I didn't get a satisfactory answer to whether raw organic root vegetables could contain microbes from the soil (and manure perhaps) inside the root, tuber, etc., no matter how well peeled and washed on the outside. Therefore I made vegetable soup with the raw vegetables my wife would usually eat confident that the heat of cooking would kill any bugs.

The time she was seriously ill with an infection it was picked up just prior to starting the chemo sessions but as it was only like a cold, the hospital said it was not going to be a problem. Oh how wrong they were! I had never seen her so ill that she went back to bed with a temperature of 39ºC and was incapable of getting up unaided. The A&E people took a while diagnosing neutropaenic sepsis but after the blood results came back she was isolated from everyone that was not in PPE and confined to a positive pressure side ward and given IV antibiotics. Forty-eight hours later she was discharged but it was a serious infection that would have killed her untreated.

How did she get that infection?

Thanks for the reply by the way

The ‘Bristol’ diet - mainly raw fruit and veg - was popular when I had breast cancer, some 18 years ago now.

foodforbreastcancer.com/articles/to-those-who-are-thinking-of-using-a-raw-food-diet-alone-to-treat-bc

foi.avon.nhs.uk/Download.aspx?r=2&did=8417&f=Eating%20Safely%20Guidelines%20For%20Adults%20At%20Risk%20Of%20Neu-14.pdf

My poor husband has Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia and has just finished about 7 months of Induction, Intense and Consolidation chemotherapy and is about to start 2 years of Maintenance chemotherapy. Its really hard long term chemo but he has to keep going. We take a day/week at a time
With regards to raw vegetables we were given a list of food to either avoid and eat little of,
They are raw vegetables, soft cheeses especially blue cheese, raw or undercooked meat and fish, smoked fish and meat, raw eggs, unpasteurised milk.