Getting Through Chemo

Most people are afraid of chemotherapy. After all, one of the most widely known facts about chemotherapy has always been that it is a dreadful experience that can, in itself, be fatal, right? Wrong. Not now. Thirty or forty years ago, yes. Twenty years ago, chemo was sheer hell. As little as a decade ago, chemo was still terrifying. But today – and I speak from experience, remember – there are excellent drugs that fight the nausea, even to the point of virtually eliminating it, strong antibiotics that fight infection, new tests to monitor all kinds of things about our blood. There are new chemo drugs in use, along with older, proven ones. There is a whole world of new information, with more discoveries being made every year. Chemotherapy is not the worse-than-death experience that so many of us have heard about. If you are coming into chemo with pre-conceived notions of torture, you need a reality check. I know, because I needed one.

Now, chemo is no walk in the park. I will not lie to you, not even to sooth your fears. Some people suffer nausea until their doctors find the anti-nausea drug that works best for them. The potential side effects are numerous and range from mildly unpleasant to downright nasty. Your oncology team should be able to provide you with literature from the American Cancer Society, or the Canadian Cancer Society, that is extremely helpful. But for most of us, no matter what we read, it is easier to hear it from someone who has actually been there. Keep in mind that there is also a wide range of severity, as well.

I highly advise you to keep track of your symptoms from the start of chemo until the end. I took a calendar and every day I wrote down how I was feeling. Did I have heartburn? A rash? Nausea? A headache? I’ll tell you three good reasons why I think you should do this:
1. You can keep track of what you need to tell your doctor from visit to visit. Think you can’t possibly forget? Wrong. Your brain is going to be running on overload for the next few months.
2. You will feel reassured from treatment to treatment when you realize that some of your symptoms are predictable. For example, many people feel like they have a mild case of the flu on days 3 to 6 of A/C. Then the feeling just goes away. Trust me, keeping track of what is happening to you gives you a feeling of control, because you know what to expect.
3. You need to keep track of your temperature now. Chemo suppresses your ability to reproduce white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets. Your immune system is compromised. You need to take your temperature at least twice a day, to make sure that you are not getting a fever. If you do get one, you need to monitor it closely. My team told me very seriously that if it went over 101 degrees, I was to head for the nearest emergency room. I’m not kidding. If you get an infection, you are at risk. I cannot stress this piece of advice enough, so please listen to me.

Potential side effects include but are not limited to:
Nausea and vomiting
Diarrhea or constipation
Dry mouth and/or throat
Metallic taste in the mouth
White patches in the mouth and throat
Mouth sores
Rash (like bad acne)
Red, itchy, dry skin
Hair loss
Low blood counts

Other serious possible reactions include but are not limited to:
Fever
Dizziness, extreme fatigue, or shortness of breath
Sudden swelling
Rash, hives, itching
Weakness or numbness in the legs
Difficulty walking
Unusual bleeding or bruising
Pain or trouble urinating
Persistent cough
Severe sore throat or mouth

Kindly note that the average person may experience a few of these side effects, but no poor soul ever got all of them!

Please also note that I am not a medical person, just a woman like the rest of you who marched through this hell fairly recently.

I had another side effect, which baffled the oncologists, a cardiologist, and an emergency room doctor; so if you feel bad and no one knows what it is, YELL. And while you are expressing yourself to your doctors, get on a breast cancer support board on the Internet, and ASK THE LADIES! Trust me, a couple of times I got answers from the ladies at http://www.bcsupport.org that no medical person had been able to figure out. Even if no one can give you an idea, they at least will sympathize and lend you a shoulder.

Prior to chemo, I had very mild asthma, so mild that I rarely carried, much less used, an asthma pump. Within days of my first chemo, I began to have a lot of trouble getting the oxygen out of the air. My lungs could move (unlike in a typical asthma attack) but I felt that the air was too thin; I could not get a feeling of having drawn a good breath. It became so severe that we had to head to the emergency room, where I was very quickly attached to all kinds of machines and blood was drawn. My blood counts were good, my clotting factor was fine, and my blood had enough oxygen. But I felt that I was not getting enough oxygen! I could tell that the emergency room doctor was starting to think I was having a panic attack.

I’ll cut to the chase: While these good folk were scratching their heads, and after three terrifying weeks of suffering, a respirologist told me that he had seen it before and that I had a little-known form of asthma. I had gone from pinching chest pains to perfect lung movement, and yet it was still asthma. I could have kissed him. Within 10 minutes of inhaling two different medicines, I was able to relax for the first time. I had to stay on a heavy dose of asthma medications for the next few months.

Since I recovered from chemo, the mysterious asthma has disappeared. So I really advise you to watch yourself, and make the doctors take you seriously when you think something is wrong.

How do you get through chemo? My best advice is to read my chapters on hygiene, eating well, and sleeping well. You need your sleep in order to heal. You need to eat well in order to heal. And when you are on chemo, you need to take care of your body like you may never have before.

Want to hear a good one? When I first decided to write this book-that-became-a-website, I sat down and started listing topics, and then I wrote both Hygiene and Eating Well. I was on chemo at the time. Then things took a downward spiral for a while, and I was too sick to write. When I started this site, or journal, or column, or whatever this is becoming, I put those ones online in the raw state, because they were too important to delay.

I plan to expand the Eating Well chapter with nutrition advice soon.

Take good care.

Pam

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I have been so grateful to have had access to web-based support groups and to breast cancer information. Here's a list of Web Resources that helped me. If you know of other good ones, please e-mail me and I will add them to the list.

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Walk-a-thon 2007