Top Tips for Chemo (Part 2)

Posted on by lauraricecake

Here are five more top tips for chemo. To read the first five, click here for Part 1.

Be prepared for both mind-numbing boredom and total over-stimulation

A lot of my chemo days felt like going to school. I was dropped off for 9, my dropper-offer delivering me to the receptionist who checked my name off the list, assigned me a room, and then delivered me to a nurse who assigned me a seat. I was given a wristband each time with all my details on, at lunch I ate the pack Mum had prepared for me. I put my hand up when I wanted to use the toilet and left with homework: a book to fill in with my side effects and a goody bag of drugs to take daily. Friends or family would pick me up, make me dinner and tell me to go to bed early.

The difference to school days was that I never quite knew how long chemo days would be, or how long I’d be waiting around for. A lot depended on if my bloods were up to scratch, how I reacted to the drugs and which other patients were in the room. I could never be 100% sure that the chemo was happening until the first drug was going in.

This led to lots of waiting around periods that were never particularly conducive to doing anything in. I’d be on tenterhooks waiting for the consultant to call the nurse, or for the pharmacy to deliver the drugs, or for my blood result to be processed. They were the most adrenaline-fuelled periods of boredom I’ve ever experienced.  

Then there is the side of chemo that I found totally over-stimulating. Chemo smells like saline solution and sounds like beeping. You hear people talk about their cancer experiences, especially people who have been in the game a long time. You see people react badly, the nurses rush over, and the patient be taken to A&E. You hear about patients who have now moved on to palliative care. You watch alarmingly large syringes being used to administer drugs. It’s all quite unnerving. I often found I didn’t just need to recover from the chemo, but to recover from being in hospital all day – it’s an overwhelming experience.

I was high on adrenaline whilst sat in the chair during my first session; I took selfies, did battle with the hospital Wi-Fi, messaged friends, watched videos and observed the room. That was the last time that happened. For the rest of the sessions, I felt drugged and dazed. I’d put the chair back, put my headphones in, and shut it all out.

Take the anti-nausea medication

When I found out I needed to do chemo, I thought that I’d lose my hair and get very sick. Sadly the former was true, but thankfully I wasn’t physically sick. I had moments of feeling very nauseous, but the anti-sickness medication is very effective, so definitely take it every day that it’s been prescribed to you.

At some point the idea will float through your head of “I’ve not been sick once, I don’t even need these anti-sickness meds”. You’ll skip them and quickly realise why they’ve been necessary the whole time…

A nurse said nobody should be physically sick from chemo anymore. I’d caveat that with that’s IF they’re taking their anti-sickness medication.

Stay on top of constipation

Constipation can be severe and debilitating. To be blunt, straining from constipation can land you in A&E. It is one of the generally less well known and talked about side effects, but one that is talked about incessantly in chemo rooms. I knew more about my companions’ bowel movements than I did about their families.

Chemo drugs clog you up fast, so, as with the anti-sickness medication, try to prevent this in whatever way you can. Throughout my chemo I used a combination of lactulose, linseed, dried apricots, and lots and lots of fruit and veg. It might take a few cycles to learn what works for you.

On the flip side, don’t overdose on the laxatives or you’ll go the other way. I spent the entirety of the Jubilee weekend on the toilet; the first two days with severe constipation, the second two days dealing with the aftereffects of throwing too many remedies at it at once. (I also spent the Queen’s funeral in chemo, so my bank holidays last year were somewhat tainted.)

Use an app to keep track of extra medication

I didn’t know that as well as the chemo drugs, I’d leave each treatment with a goody bag of other drugs to take 2-3 times daily. You think you’ll remember to do this, but it’s amazing how in an already drug-induced haze you forget to take yet more drugs.

Ask one of the nurses to write down exactly which drugs you take when (or make use of the 24-hour chemo helpline). Some I took for a few days after a treatment session, some every day until the next session, others as and when required.

I’d recommend either setting an alarm to remind you, or better yet downloading an app like Medisafe which will send you reminders.

“But you look so well…” – remember that people mean well

I don’t think the typical image we’re fed in the media of a bald, pale, tired and weak cancer patient is helpful at all. In most cases, chemo doesn’t send you to bed for 6 months. Some people manage to keep working throughout. For most it’s an up and down, where some days you will manage “normal” things, and others you will stay in bed.

Throughout my 6 months of chemo, even when I was feeling at my very worst, people would consistently tell me how well I looked. It made me mad, as if our outsides had ever been an accurate representation of our insides. It took a friend telling me about her traumatic birth experience, and me being stunned that she looked so fresh considering what she had just been through, for me to realise that people weren’t diminishing how I felt. They were amazed that I looked well when they weren’t expecting me too.

People know that chemo is tough going and hate that you’re having to go through it. People are desperately trying to find some positives, and if you look well it can give people hope that you’re going to be okay.

That’s 10 tips down, 5 to go. More soon!

One thought on “Top Tips for Chemo (Part 2)”

  1. Pingback: Top Tips for Chemo (Part 3) – Laura writes…

Leave a comment