First chemo

Well done @Spillsy, round one down !!! Big hugs xxoo 

So glad you are feeling better today love. It can be a shit of a thing. Hang in there we are all with you don’t worry. Margie xx

thanks all, felt so much better today, was such a shock to feel so bad. wrote down in my diary, for future reference and attempt to work in between chemo cycles!!!

I had ACT-H chemo regime and I was wiped on 1st day...but okay after then by day 4 uuugh. Nauseas. Exhausted. And tired for another week. Then finally good for 1 week...then it all starts again. Perfectly normal.  I got a decent lounge chair,  sheepskin and netflex and settled in. 

Thanks all, such great advice from people who have been there. It's good to know you all got through and thinks you did. I think today was a big shock as I felt so dreadful most of the day and couldn't really interact with my family as I kept hopping into bed. I don't know what I would do without this discussion board, as if I try to explain to non cancer people they seem to not get it.  I am not pleased about my new life but with little choice have to get on with it. 
Cxx

Hi @Spillsy.

Chemo is a shit of thing isn't it?  But the ladies are correct of course.  It does get better.  I had 4 x AC and then 12 xwkly Taxol.  The afternoon of and day 4 of the AC were bloody awful.  Day two and three I had heaps of energy, from all the steroids I guess, so I used to do as much as I could on those two days and plan nothing for day4 ,then things improved again Once you work out which is your worst day you can plan around that. I worked but I was lucky I could change my shifts around what I knew would be my crappy days. The Taxol was a lot easier to handle for me.  Almost no fatigue/nausea at all.

I had a calender on the fridge that I could put a big red cross through after each session was over so I could see each time that I was closer to the finish line.  Was I excited to put that last cross on.   
One foot in front of the other and soon it will be over then you can mend and get back to being you. 
XOXOXO

Your emotional and physical health are connected. Your perfectly understandable sense of disbelief may well affect your energy levels, although chemo can do that really effectively all by itself! It's infuriating but you need to (temporarily) abandon your practical, juggling habits and take one day at a time. As others have said, many women experience a cycle - feel OK, then awful, then increasingly better - until the next dose. Knowing your cycle will help - then you can plan for your good (and your bad) days. Is your work adaptable in terms of hours at all? Can you work from home? It's hard on all the family but your young boys now have a wonderful opportunity to develop domestic skills that someone will love then for later in life! Let them help. Ditto friends. Many people have no idea what to say or do. Letting them know that a small thing (a cooked meal, a lift) would be helpful helps them too. As you are at home and sort of upright, you feel you should be doing a lot more, but what if you had a different type of illness and were hospitalised?  Every one starting chemo feels that this is how their life will be from now on - but it does actually pass. You are doing something you have never done before, unwillingly and probably fearfully. Of course you don't know how to do it!!  But if you can be a mum, a worker and a wife, you sure can learn this one too. It'll be hard, there will be tears, but you will also have (slightly ridiculous) moments of achievement, flashes of insight and (what we all want) a life to look forward to. One step at a time is frustrating, but it's effective. Best wishes.

It's ok to feel that way @Spillsy, it's the shock of life being turned all upside down and round about. I said all the way thru chemo I didn't feel like me, look like me so this wasn't happening to me right!? You just keep putting one foot in front of the other and just do what you can manage. If you're able to go for a walk, great. If not, don't beat yourself up. The fatigue is real and it's accumulative I'm sorry to say. And PS you are so not a wimp - cancer sucks as does chemo and it's shitty side effects. Massive hugs xxoo

Hi all, such great advice and information. I think I am still in disbelief stage, as a month ago I was having a ‘great life’ with so much to look forward to for 2018....
My kids are being great and husband is being a tower of strength. 

I can't comment on chemo as I'm still waiting to find out what treatment I may have but as to the other stuff... I told immediate family and 2 key friends, asking them to tell other people.  I've since started a blog which has served the purpose of providing updates to people, and also to bleurchh (yes, I've decided that's a word) my feelings about what is happening to me.  My husband also told people that he works with in the community.  I've had nothing but offers of support and respect for my needing to bunker down with this.  My kids are 11, 12 & 15.  They've always done housework chores but they've taken on lots of other responsibilities since I had surgery, including cooking Christmas dinner.  I've had to let go of MY way of doing things a bit.  I've also told them that I will be completely honest with them about what is happening to me although I may not always share the what-ifs.  I think that taking on household responsibilities, although not always done with a smile, allows them to feel that they are contributing.
Originally, I thought that I would go back to work as soon as term started but my GP insists that I don't as she says to concentrate on my physical and emotional health.  As reluctant as I am, and knowing that it will be very difficult financially, I'm coming around to the belief that she is right.  
Look after yourself, @Spillsy.  You need to focus on getting through.