Saying 'chemotherapy' is like saying tablet. There are so many different types...more than I realised. Some makes you loose your hair and makes you 'look like a cancer patient'. Some is fed through a cannula for an hour (usually for breast cancer) some is every day, some once awake for 5 sessions. Some is more long term, like chemo tablets. Mine is different.
People have asked me what does my chemo feel like. I tried to put it into a word but couldn't.
It doesn't hurt when it goes in. It's just like being on a drip....it's just bags have to keep getting changed. I talk to the nurses and sometimes get visited by doctors. I have joke and smile at whoever and whenever I can.
I sometimes had a sleep as some of the bags make me drowsy.
How many bags? Well, 6 bags, 5 tablets and 3 injections.
It takes about 8 hours in all. I have Cetuximab which is a protein that is trying to change how my cells are grown in the first place. I have folonic acid, 5fu, fufuri, and alsorts.
At the end of it I have a pump attached to my PICC line (in my left arm) that has to stay on for 48 hours whilst my heart pumps the rest of the chemo around my body.
A nurse comes to my house and takes the pump off, flushes the line with sodium chloride ad heparin to make sure my blood doesn't clot over the end of the pipe which runs up the inside of my arm across my chest and lays close to my heart.
She then replaces the dressings cleans the site (with alcohol...ouch!) I think it would be more effective if I drank it!
The pump goes in my humongous sharps bin.
Then thats usually when the fun totally begins...
Sleep / can't sleep
Palpitations and Tachycardic
Breathlessness
Irritability and mood swings
Achy / restless arms and legs
Hair thinning
Face mooning
Weight gain
Emotional
Mouth ulcers
Sore lips
Low immune system..prone to fevers and infection
Low blood pressure...dizziness
Skin determination and pigment change
Acne
To name but a few...I just pick and choose which ones I fancy having each day!
I then have a week to try ad get strong enough for them to start all over again.m12 times in all.....that's if I can stay out of hospital long enough!
I have a blood test through my PICC line on the following Friday to see if I have enough immune system to carry on. It's then flushed and redressed again. I see my oncologist on the Monday, discuss a way forward and come in for the chemo again note Wednesday.
And that's pretty much it, a whistle stop tour!