Surviving TCH Chemo Ist Round

My first TCH Chemo Day began late because my lovely kind oncologist had bad news for several clients and is lovely enough to give them all the time they need before sending them out into the world in distress. Or that was my impression. Chemo started well with a brilliant nurse Jane setting me up and keeping me very well informed about what was happening. I got pheneregan which made me very sleepy, but also restless legs so was unable to sleep at all during the day. Food provided was stodgy sandwiches, must take my own next time. Problems began in the late afternoon as the oncology lounge approached closing time, and the nurse scheduled to take the remaining 2 of us up put me in a room saying she'd be back to reset my dispenser to the faster speed of 300 to finish the Docetaxol and then put the Carboplatin in. She brought the next patient up to the top of the lift then vanished, abandoning us both. She never reappeared and apparently did not do any sort of handover. My alarm  on my Chemo drip went off, dispensing stopped and noone came to start it again. I rang the nurse bell but noone came. I went out to the ward with my bottles  andd drips and insisted they find an oncology nurse. The other woman still on Chemo drips was still waiting to be allocated a room, and was distressed too. After quite some time, the nurses started looking and finally did, and she started up the last of the Docetaxol at the same speed of 250, saying that was the maximum, leaving me wondering which of the two nurses was right and which was wrong. When the alarm went again for the next chemical to be started, the only nurse available was only authorised to stop the alarm, and once more there was a long wait until someone finally appeared who could get the next chemical dispensing. I finally got home  about 12 hours after leaving, feeling exhausted and badly messed around.

Next morning I woke up weighing 4kg more that the morning before, with constipation, fluid retention, and increasing heartburn and internal distress. I rang the Chemo lounge and Jane rang my oncologist for me, who suggested eating lots of watermelon for the weightgain/fluid retention, and it worked well. I also started taking Movicol to stop constipation in a really gentle way and just keep things moving comfortably, from 2 sachets to half a sachets a day from day 2 until about day 7 when my bowels switched towards to opposite extreme and I started to eat stodgy food like white bread rolls with cheese and avocado, which seemed to do the trick.

The heartburn has been a killer for me for much of the first week, causing insomnia and the distress of not being able to eat without ongoing severe discomfort. I tried mylanta and quickeze, I tried Gavison but the taste makes me gag. I tried home remedies of lemon and baking soda, not so bad but less effective. Finally researched what has been found to reduce permanent gastrointestinal damage in Chemo patients, found a proton pump inhibiter did better that ranitidine, so got the generic sold for Somac, finally onto OTC Somac which seems to really solve this problem, so I am now sleeping well too.

I am now up to day 10, and feel I have recovered from the worst by using Movicol for bowels, Somac for heartburn and indigestion, a tiny fragment of restivit (about 1/8tab) for sleeplessness, hourly salt gargles for oral health, regular hand washing and hand sanitiser, and walking for at least 15 minutes with my daughter even on the worst days. Needless to say, I did check with the oncology nurses by phone before taking anything not on the list supplied by the oncologist.

I have to say that I had some days when I felt so shaken and distressed I knew I would be terrified of entering the Chemo lounge next time. Days when I was a ball of misery, days when I panicked because there was nothing I could eat that would not hurt. But now I know the physical distress for me was largely due to four main symptoms that can be reduced considerably by taking somac ongoing, and movicol on day 1, and having watermelon juice twice a day, and can put a few things like frozen prawn wonton soup and bulla splits into the freezer to feed me when nothing else will do, I know it will actually never get as bad as this first time. As far as these symptoms go anyway. I am told that fatigue and possibly mouth ulcers get worse as you go, and that there is always a chance of a sudden infection, but for now, that is not worrying me. I really appreciate Robyn's message about the importance of keeping on walking even on the worst Chemo days, to get the stuff moving through and to brighten things, and it really was the bright point of the darkest days.