Is chemo as bad as everyone says it is? Has anyone here experienced it?

Answer 1

I have experienced 7 months of chemo for cancer. Chemo is a radioactive medicine that is dripped into you veins usually through your arm and flows with your blood throughout your blood stream.
Initially it isn't bad but because they lower your blood cell count to prevent your body from fighting off the chemo( the radiation in your blood is a foreignbody and your bodies natural resistance to foreign bodies ) Your white count is lowered and now the chemo can survive in body to fight the cancer.
Initially the treatment isn't bad. You are not tired in the beginning but as the amount of radiation builds in your system you become very fatigued. Usually the day you have the treatment you are ok and the day after too,but by the third day the chemo makes you very tired and after approximately 3 days you start to feel better. As the amount of radiation builds up inside you,you fell more fatigued sooner and it lasts longer.
They will give you medicines to reduce or prevent the sickness that is associated with the treatment. Some times it works and other times it doesen't but they have many other medications to help with the sickness. The lowering of your red blood counts causes you to loose your hair all over your body and usually after a week or two you'll notice patches of hair falling off your head and body. After the treatment it will grow back every where but while the red count is low and you are going through treatment you may experience baldness (in most cases) Your loose your taste buds while on chemo and the only thing to use a hot sauce to help with the flavor as your food becomes bland. You will feel tingling in your toes after extended use of the drug. I think thats all but as I face another bout with the posibility of chemo I will up date you. I did not have what is called a a cocktail( a mixture of different drugs to fight this disease I can only assume that the side effects are greater with the cocktail)

Answer 2

Yes and no. I had chemotherapy as a preventive measure following the removal of a large tumor in my ascending colon. It had not invaded the surrounding lymph nodes, fortunately. My first chemo series consisted of daily sessions for five days, using IV push while Ringer's solution was dripping into the IV line. After day 4, I had a number of fairly severe side effects which lasted for about two weeks. I lost quite a bit of weight because it was so painful to eat (stomatitis, inflammation of the mouth), and I also lost most of my appetite. I opted to change doctors, and went through two more series (same drugs, same dosage) each consisting of six sessions, once a week, using an infusion approach. That's where the drug(s) are mixed with the Ringer's solution in the IV bottle before the needle is put in. NO side effects at all! The lesson here is to discuss the different protocols with your oncologist, go with whatever he recommends for the first series, and insist that the protocol be changed if you get severe side effects. By the way, losing your hair and getting a purple rash on your butt aren't that big a deal.

Answer 3

It depends on your overall health and age and your ability to tolerate treatment. My son made it seem like it was easy. I know he felt lousy, but we figured out that if he was well hydrated before starting chemo he did much better. We also found out that he needed to just regularly scheduled the anti-nauseau meds to cover each day.

My son had a particularly harsh, high dose chemo cocktail of Vincristine, Cytoxan, Doxirubicin for five days in the hospital, home for 21 days, and three days as in patient with Etoposide and Ifosomide. He had 9 cycles of these five chemos and it literally saved his life.
He was stage IV at diagnosis and by the third or fourth cycle he started to respond. His tumor burden was reduced by 20% (which for sarcoma is good) but it was the 5th cycle where we saw huge results. His primary tumor which was 19cm was significantly reduced by 75%. Because he had good response, he was able to undergo a debulking surgery.

He had a second cytoreductive surgery with a heated mytomycin C which killed off tiny and microscopic cancer cells. He tolerated it so well that he came home from surgery after 8 days.

His next cycle of chemo was to address spots on his lungs. He had 8 months of Irinotecan and Temodar . . which he was able to have at home with a visiting nurse. It was bascially two weeks on chemo followed by two weeks of recovery. He used Ativan and zophran to control any nauseau . . and in between everything he finished high school and graduated with his class. Some days were better than others, but it wasn't as bad as the rounds he had in the hospital.

He's now on Topetecan and Cytoxan and it's hardly effecting him at all. He has 5 days and than a 21 day cycle. I just hope that it does its job at this point.

So, other than being a real time sucker tolerating chemotherapy appears to be an individual thing. Some tolerate it better than others.

Answer 4

A lot of the side effects will depend on what kind of chemo you're having, because there's no big vat of medicine called "chemotherapy" that everyone gets. There are many, many kinds of drugs for different kinds of cancers, and sometimes you'll get combinations of drugs. Some doctors cut doses in half, for example, and give it more frequently, in an effort to cut down on the side effects.

There are medications available to prevent the nausea that sometimes accompanies chemotherapy treatments, as well as other drugs to prevent or alleviate other side effects. This can become quite the drug cocktail, and that's something else you and your physician will need to decide.

If your physician has proposed chemotherapy, ask questions, and allow yourself to make an informed decision as to whether that's something you want to do. Some people decide not to take it, and that's their decision. Others, like my Mom, know that the side effects will be fairly devastating, but they are temporary, and the reward, life, was worth the risk. But only the patient should decide, since it's their life.

Best wishes to you.

Answer 5

How bad it is to a great extent depends on the cancer you have, what stage, etc. But don't be discouraged - read on:

This is just my personal experience but it seems like it isn't nearly as bad as it was, say, 20 odd years ago. I had relatives go through it back then and some going through it now and it doesn't seem nearly as horrible. Lot of nasuea, weakness, extreme difficulty eating/drinking and the accompanying weight loss. Everyone is still mostly able to get around (say to the bathroom) when necessary. Years ago I saw some pretty darned ugly things that I'm not seeing this time. I'd like to think treatment has just improved that much, but it could just be luck of the draw -- so to speak.

Answer 6

I went through 5 months of chemo for Hodgkin's disease. The cocktail, known as ABVD is considered one of the more nasty ones out there. During that time I only vomited once, and the worst side effect was really bad constipation. Actually, I gained 5 lbs during this time. The Nutritionist at the Hospital asked me how I did it, and told her I really didn't do anything out of the ordinary. She was stumped.

Answer 7

Barring a serious injury, I'm told that kidney stones pretty much rate right up there for birthing pain. There are plenty of pains worse than birth - usually they are life threatening and often cause you to pass out due to the intensity. Twisted bowels would be a good example.

Answer 8

My dad is going through chemo for bladder cancer and he has had no complaints other than he gets realy tired. He only has to go for three weeks, one day a week, for 2 hours. BUT they told him to buy bleach and pour it down the toilet everytime he goes to the bathroom for the full 24 hours after treatment has been given. I guess it is considered a toxin after being excreted via the bladder and must be controlled with bleach. HMMMMMMmmm.

Answer 9

I had 8 treatments and except for feeling like I had the flue for 3 days after and a little tiredness there wasn't much else. I was lucky ...that's what the doc said.

Answer 10

I don't know, but chemo is filling your body with chemicals to kill the bad cells, but it winds up killing alot more than that.

Also radiation, a lot of radiation

It's really bad, but I guess if you have no other choice, It might be better than dying.