Finally got chemo the other day

[Tab]

First time in, I don't know - 6 weeks?

Dropped the 5-FU, and the pump, added Avastin. So far, so good. Maybe I'm back on track.

Was pretty bummed by my progress up until then.

[Irishonly]

1. I am glad your treatment started again.

I hope you are back on track also. The group has been very quiet and I have been wondering how everyone is doing. Are you feeling ok?

[KC]

2. I am glad

you were able to start it again. I hope you are able to tolerate it and that it helps! Please let us all know how you're doing.

The group really has been quiet and I'm hoping everyone is ok and just busy. I do check here all the time.

I'm doing ok. Had another follow up /check up and scan and thank goodness it was all ok.

[Irishonly]

3. I never know if I should be doing a happy dance

or worry. I hope everyone have a wonderful start to the New Year and that those in treatment have an easy time. I don't want to be a nosy nellie and nagger but I do wonder a lot.

[KC]

4. I always

wonder and worry too. I think it's normal to do both, unfortunately.
I just hope it will be a better year for everyone!

[sinkingfeeling]

5. Good to hear you're back in treatment.

[Evoman]

6. Good.

My chemo was put off for about 4 weeks. I got a massive blood clot in my shoulder. I was in the hospital for about a two weeks due to the severe pain and the chance the blood clot might cause some problems. Now I'm on blood thinners and a blood pressure med, because the Avastin raised my blood pressure. Next chemo, this Wed., I won't be getting Avastin, though it will continue next round after that. Only problem is that the Avastin give me bloody mucous (although my nose doesn't actually bleed). With the blood thinner, however, it gave me a bloody nose that wouldn't stop for a long time. I'm afraid of getting Avastin again...its what indirectly caused my blood clot and gave me the bad nose bleed. I'm afraid of ending up in the hospital again.

I'm so tired of this Tab. So tired.

[Tab]

7. I hear you, man.

You know, I don't mind getting chemo, since it means I'm fighting the disease back. And I don't necessarily mind NOT getting chemo, the effect to my lifespan aside, because I get to feel physically better. What sucks is going in every session and getting psyched up for chemo, finding out my platelets (usually) or WBC (less often) aren't up to snuff and having to go home only to "try again next week". That just makes an emotional rollercoaster out of it.

[Irishonly]

9. I read once that chemo is like fighting a war

and a full scale battle and radiation is like a skirmish. Toward the end I was so weak I couldn't drive anymore as I didn't have enough strength in my legs to brake the car. They also used to tell me to visualize me getting rid of the cancer while I was getting treatment. No matter what I tried I always saw David Carridine betting the cancer with Kung Fu. Looking back it may have been silly but it did help.

[Tab]

10. Unfortunately I'm likely on it for the rest of my life.

Unless one of these treatments beats it down (which would probably only be temporary anyway), it's just keeping it at bay right now, so it has to continue indefinitely.

It'd be nice if I didn't have to do it, but it's part of my life now. It does limit certain things (travel, etc) but I just look at it as a life circumstance that I'm in.

[Irishonly]

8. I am so sorry

Chemo is hell and there is no getting around it. How long is it between your treatments? The hardest time I had was when they were every two weeks. I would have nose bleeds but nothing like you have described. Will you have to stay on the blood thinners until your treatment is done?

[Tab]

11. In theory every two weeks.

The optimal time for this regimen is about 2 weeks. However, as has been noted in this (or other) threads, I have gone through a period where I wasn't getting chemo for weeks on end (like 5 or 6 weeks in between. This was typically because my platelets weren't cooperating. The average person has 140k to, I think, 400k of platelets. Mine have always run low, around 75k. They won't give me chemo if the level (and my ability to make or retain platelets) is below 70k. So I'm right on the edge. It doesn't take much for me to clock in below 70k, and if that's the case, then I don't get chemo. So every visit is up in the air, and there's not much you can eat or drink or take to "improve" platelets. If I could improve them by drinking carrot juice, believe me, I'd be all over that. But it's not that easy.

[Evoman]

12. Every two weeks is what I get.

The blood clot was due to the Avastin. It was so swollen and painful that palliative care had to get involved so they could give me adequate pain relief, because the surgery doctors and oncologists are useless when delivering pain meds. Finally the pain has died down, but now I'm dependant on pain meds. It isn't so bad, but once my next round of chemos are done, I'll get off them. Trying to get off pain meds AND get through chemo is way too rough.

I don't handle my regimen as well as tab does. I get quite sick (though I don't vomit) and on the second week, fatigue beats the shit out of me. Everybody is different I guess. At least I don't LOOK sick....if you just saw me on the street, you would have no idea I had cancer.