Chemo side affects

Cindi

Hi my friends,

Cindi here, I'm reaching out to you because my chemo nurse told me although my cancer isn't breast cancer now ( I had that last year) my new cancer is actually called bladder cancer even though it was in the ureter which connects the kidney to bladder.

 Kidney & ureter and part of bladder now removed and my nurse said one of my chemo meds is also used for breast cancer, so I wanted to know if any one has experience with Gemcitabine or Carboplatin?

I started yesterday and I'm already very constipated even though I've taken Movical, prune juice, and Coloxyl, but no luck.Drinking lots too.

I don't want this to drag on for days as I was told I'd get worse.

Any thoughts? love to hear anything that you've found would help.

They have only told me that I may or may not loose all my hair, eyelashes & eyebrows ( don't mind about the pubic hair! it can go happily )

Any input would be so appreciated.

xx

arpie

That's a bugger, @Cindi ....You've had a lot to put up with in recent months xx  I hope you are going OK xx. 

I have occasional bouts of diarrhoea (not chemo related) that puts Pico Prep for a colonoscopy to shame ..... but have never had ongoing constipation, tho hubby did.     He ate LOTS of prunes (not the juice - as there is more bulk in the actual prunes - and they taste surprisingly nice!) ... and he did the Movicol thing & coloxyl if it got really bad ....   What quantities of Movicol & Coloxyl are you on?  Have you talked to your Onc about it?   Could you ask your breast care nurse (even tho it relates to the new diagnosis?  They may have some good ideas too?) xx

Check out this post started earlier this year ..... if you whack an answer on it, I reckon lots more people will jump on as well, with their remedies xx
https://onlinenetwork.bcna.org.au/discussion/26366/constipation

take care buddy, we are all thinking of you xx
 

Cindi

Hi @arpie ,

 Thanks for the help, however yesterday afternoon all the meds I'd taken "suddenly" all worked! ....and I mean suddenly! luckily I wasn't far from the bathroom. Very bad the opposite way then for most of the evening.Even blood came out!! scary but all settled later, didn't really know what to do as I was all alone. SMy hubby out at some boxing thing he works for.

But was a huge relief when eventually felt back to normal

But sleep avoided me even though my CBD oil always helps wonderfully, it was strange ,like very speedy feeling. I have to take a steroid drug each morning which helps the chemo I think ( Dexametasone) I wonder if that is causing it.

Anyway I ended up having to have a sleeping pill, which we have very few of, and are my hubbies, he needs them a lot because he now needs a shoulder operation and cant sleep ..hmmm. I wish he'd wait till my chemo's finished, but think I'll end up having to push myself and look after him.

 I'll have to try to get more but our GP seems to hate giving scripts for them.

I did message chemo nurse yesterday but got no response ( I know she's flat out) now weekend so they not there.

So glad I can speak on here to people who care and help, really appreciate it. ( can't find a forum for my new type of cancer.) I'm kind of not really a bladder cancer patient as mine was growing in the ureter and that's more rare.

Thank you so much , will check out the posts.

xx

arpie

message sent xx

FiFiK

just in case you get blocked again you can add suppositories on your list of things to try. not the most pleasant but does the trick. and can be bought from a chemist.

Cindi

Thanks @Arpie.

@FiFiK , have written that down.