how do you deal with chemotherapy?
do you feel sick after every time they inject you with it?
how long does vomiting last for for you? what are the main side effects and are they really tough for you?
does everyone lose their hair due to chemotherapy or is there a chance poeple won't lose their hair?
(i'm asking this for a reasearch i'm making, i need a lot of details for it)
2007-01-09 06:23:20 · 7 answers · asked by tam 1 in Health ➔ Diseases & Conditions ➔ Cancer
I am currently undergoing chemotherapy for a Primary Mediastinal Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma. Blood cancer, basically. Chemo is different for not only every type of cancer, but for every individual. Certain chemo drugs cause certain side effects, therefore not everyone will have the same side effects with the same chemo. Personally I receive 5 different drugs when I have my chemo. 3 of these drugs cause hair loss in most patients. This made my odds of losing my hair pretty high. I did in fact lose it starting exactly 12 days after my first treatment. (I've currently had 4 treatments.) After the third treatment I started to lose eyebrows and eyelashes as well. Still have arm hair though. Some people do get lucky and don't lose all of their hair, or it just sort of thins out.
The 2 side effects that I've dealt with the most are Nausea/Vomitting and fatigue. I'll start with the throwing up first. I experienced it with the first 3 rounds of chemo. It would start about 4 hours after the treatment ended and would last for 72 hours or so. The nausea stuck around longer though. I take 3 different anti-nausea medications now and did not get sick after round 4, though I still felt like I was going to. Not sure if you need them for your research but the names of them are Emend, Kytril, and Ativan.
As far as fatigue goes, I think that is the worst side effect. Seems like with each round of Chemo it becomes harder for your body to go back to "normal" afterwards. It's hard to explain chemo fatigue, but you literally just have no strength. For the first 3 or 4 days after treatment I can sleep about 18 hours a day and still feel tired when I am awake. It's very hard to eat as well because nothing tastes right and it's hard to chew. Again though, this is for my specific treatment which is only used to treat certain types of Lymphoma. This may be different for different cancers.
Hope this helped a little.
2007-01-10 18:01:16 · answer #1 · answered by Jennh83 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I was diagnosed last Thursday with colon cancer. I have no idea until after surgery of where I will stand with Chemo but I do have a close friend who is undergoing chemo as we speak for the same diagnosis and has not had a bit of trouble other than weight loss and diarreah. She is on her second round of it now. Hair loss has been a so slight that only she has noticed a few strands here and there and her oncologist thinks it will stay that way. So I would have to say that depending on the dosage and the person not everyone has the severe symptoms. This is what I am hoping for. Wish me luck.
2007-01-09 17:34:43 · answer #2 · answered by chimom54 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
1st you must have a good out look on life 2nd not everytime you have chemo will it make you sick sometimes it takes 3 or 4 treatments to start donig you like that the only way it hurts for them to put the chemo in is if they have to stick a vein everytime they do it thats why most cancer people have a port put in when the throwing up starts it only last a couple days and they give you meds for that the side affect are usually mild in some people and with the meds not hard to deal with not all cancer patients loose there hair some lose none at all.i have 2 cancer patients in my family 1 on chemo and the other on radiation
2007-01-11 06:59:44 · answer #3 · answered by mountainchowpurple 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes I have cancer.
Stage 2B Nasopharangyeal Cancer (nose)
I had 6 rounds of chemo (cisplatin + 5FU)
35 rounds of daily IMRT radiation to the head and neck.
I'm a 29 year old male.
You deal with chemotherapy through a variey of drugs to help alleviate the side effects. these include drugs to fight nausea, diahrrhea, skin irrations, etc.
You do feel sick after you get chemo. The worst of it comes
7-10 days after your infusion
Vomiting lasted for days with me, sometimes 3-4 times a night.
At those times, even anti-nausea drugs did NOT work on me. I just threw up.
I lost my hair 5 weeks into treatment, slowly started to come out, so I shaved it all. There are people who do not lose their hair at all.
2007-01-12 16:18:53 · answer #4 · answered by Denny T 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i have multiple myeloma (bone cancer). i had chemo 3 years ago and a stem cell transplant. it was tough for about a week diarrhoea and vomiting. i went to barbers and had my hair shaved in preparation and lost much of my body hair. psychologically it was ok i felt strong as i have two daughters to care about. if it flares up again i will have it again even though it will be bad, i will take all the medical chances i can to stay alive being positive is a must , dont give the cancer an easy time.
2007-01-09 14:39:02 · answer #5 · answered by Dave R 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I had breast cancer and went through two rounds of chemo. I lost all my hair (it has since grown back). My oncologist put me on Zofran for my nausea and vomiting. I took it before the chemo and it really helped. I was able to eat a little which helped me to keep my strength up. If you get really week and dehydrated, it will make it much harder to fight the cancer and the effects of the chemo.
2007-01-09 14:28:30 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
i have a brain tomber and im only 10 i was born with it it has cancer in it and now im going to die soon:(
2007-01-09 15:43:26 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋