Dread of Chemo
Hello everyone, so glad to join your group with my first post. I live in
Cairns and was diagnosed in Nov with ER+ PR+ HER2- and underwent
lumpectomy for 4.5cm tumor and removed 7 lymph nodes. Outcom...
Forum Discussion
Hi Braveheart,
i have been there recently and fortunately the anticipation has been worse than the reality. I will be having my 5 th chemo on the 8th Jan. What I found useful was following the advice of the nurses around preventing constipation. They have really good drugs to prevent nausea now so that is very unlikely.
I found carefully recording my side effects each day after the first chemo very helpful as I then took this into the oncologist and he was able to advise me about meds to take to prevent as many side effects as possible the second time around.
Having some common meds on hand is useful like paracetamol, Imodium to stop diarrhoea, rehydration powder for diarrhoea. I found using gentle toothbrushes and salt and bicarbonate mouthwashes for the week after chemo really helpful. Not much you can do about loss of taste unfortunately!
My hair fell out 2 weeks after the first chemo, getting it cut short first really helped me. Walking or some exercise each day has been shown in studies to help with side effects as well.
The portacath should settle down and be happier and some local anaesthetic cream is good an hour before they insert the needle.
All the best for the 9th.
i have been there recently and fortunately the anticipation has been worse than the reality. I will be having my 5 th chemo on the 8th Jan. What I found useful was following the advice of the nurses around preventing constipation. They have really good drugs to prevent nausea now so that is very unlikely.
I found carefully recording my side effects each day after the first chemo very helpful as I then took this into the oncologist and he was able to advise me about meds to take to prevent as many side effects as possible the second time around.
Having some common meds on hand is useful like paracetamol, Imodium to stop diarrhoea, rehydration powder for diarrhoea. I found using gentle toothbrushes and salt and bicarbonate mouthwashes for the week after chemo really helpful. Not much you can do about loss of taste unfortunately!
My hair fell out 2 weeks after the first chemo, getting it cut short first really helped me. Walking or some exercise each day has been shown in studies to help with side effects as well.
The portacath should settle down and be happier and some local anaesthetic cream is good an hour before they insert the needle.
All the best for the 9th.