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Cycle 4 and very nervous
My husband is going into round 4 of Flot tomorrow and I’m very anxious. His white blood cell counts plummet every time he has chemo and the last round they were having trouble getting his body to bounce back. He had 4 injections to help, when before 2 would be enough. We’ll see tomorrow how he’s doing. He was like a zombie for much of the last round; he was dizzy and sick before they even took the pump for the 5FU off and could barely get off the couch for almost 2 weeks. He had a longer reprieve this time due to his insurance changing over and I believe his body needed it. He went into this so strong but he’s getting really beat up. I think he’s going to ask them to slightly lower the dosage tomorrow for the next round. Neither of his thinks his body can take another full on assault; though it does seem to be helping-he can eat things that he couldn’t eat before chemo, and isn’t having any trouble swallowing. The doctor said lowering the dosage would be an option this time around and I’m wondering if the extremely low wbc counts concerned him as well. My husband has lost a little bit of weight and definitely some muscle mass; his appetite was destroyed for a while during the last round of chemo but he was still able to eat; prior to that he was eating fine, even though lots of things tasted weird he was still getting hungry. This is definitely not an experience for the faint of heart!
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Hi there. I'm sorry to hear about the bad experiences with the chemo session. My husband had four rounds of immunotherapy and chemotherapy, then surgery, then four more rounds of chemotherapy. I could tell before the first session was finished that his dose was too high. The nurse confirmed that they shoot for as high a dose as a body can tolerate, with a 20% margin for reduction. I requested an immediate reduction and his oncologist concurred. His next three sessions were 10% reduction of meds from the first session, and although better, the first session knocked him on his behind and he never really recovered fully like he did during the first four sessions. The night of that first over-dose of chemo, all of his hair fell out in one fail swoop, including his beard. Can you request a reduction of the meds? It was just too much for his already exhausted body to handle at that point. Slow progress now and healing but I wish I had requested the full 20% reduction, looking back. Sending you both love and strength!
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2 ReactionsHi. Not uncommon. I didn't even make it that far. After 2 rounds the flot caused a heart attack so had to be stopped completely.
Oh no! I know that the 5FU can be hard on the heart and I’ve been worried about it. I hope they found you a treatment better for you. They didn’t test my husband prior to chemo to make sure it was safe for him either, because they didn’t want to wait to do chemo.
They did a 10% reduction for cycle 4; the doc didn’t want to go down too much because he feels like it’s working. I hope it helps my husband to get through it. He has a scan after this and then, if that looks good, he’s supposed to go for the surgery. I’m very nervous about that too. As hard as the first 4 rounds of chemo were it’s hard to imagine him doing this all over again after the trauma of surgery. They might have to reduce the dosage another 10%, at that point.
Hi sorry for what you guys are going through. Only thing that might help after your treatment is walking around your home the block or wherever you can. I know it sounds like you can’t or don’t want to. Many times I didn’t want to forced myself to even if it’s walking around the house. It’s good for your body and your mind. For me it felt like I was in charge not the chemo or the cancer even if it was just for a little while. The more I moved around the better I felt. I hope this helps you even a little. Try and stay positive you can do this ok 👍
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1 ReactionThey can't really test you. Yes I was put on a cross treatment mix of a milder chemo with radiation. I'm now 2 years post op and doing pretty well.
I was fit and healthy before just unlucky enough to wind up with complications from basically everything that was done.
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1 ReactionThank you!
There is actually a test they can do prior to giving someone 5FU-I think it’s a genetic test. That said, it’s probably not foolproof; someone might not have a specific gene and still have a heart attack. I’m glad you’re doing better now!
Just wanted to add that I hope things are much better for you guys these days and that your hubby enjoys many, many years of good health. This is a wild ride that none of us wanted to be on, but we’re doing it, day by day.