Hello. 👋 well I guess your first week of chemo is well under way.
I’m in my third week. chemo has so far been kind to me this week.
I had a severe reaction to chemo at the end of the first 5 days, running through to the end of the 2nd week. The evening of the fifth day, whilst discussing Euchre with a couple of friends, I started Dripping perspiration, cold hot shivers, massive temperature rise, stripped off all clothing, lying down on the cold tiled floor in the bathroom, trying desperately to get my temperature down quickly. I thought I was going to have a heart attack. The nausea and pain in my stomach was excruciating.
This lasted about 20-30 minutes and I was about to go to the hospital as I had been warned that I might re act, without being given explicits about what to expect other than a rapid rise in temperature. I started recovering from this “bout” of rapid temp rise just as my friends came to check I was “ok”.my taste buds changed, water tasted foul, couldn’t stand the smell of coffee, (I’m a 4 cup a day coffee freak) or go anywhere near fried food, fish and chips, fried chicken etc, not that I eat fried food, but friend do and sitting with them whilst they ate food, did not turn out so well, as I made many trips to the bathroom. The nausea and diarrhoea was constant and difficult to handle. I had massive headaches for the first week, and a stiff neck and pain running up the left side of my neck to my left ear. My neck got very swollen and sore and tight . I then went through stages of sleep and strange alertness being awake at odd hours and some night time insomnia.My breast hurt and the lymph nodes under my armpits and surrounds hurt with swelling.
I did not want to post my initial experience to you until you had started your first week, as I’m told everyone’s experience is quite different.
so I’m hoping yours will not be an unpleasant as my initial reaction to chemo was. In saying all of this, my third week has been better, and I had anticipated it getting worse.
I’ve learnt what I can eat, without too much nausea and I’ve cut meals down to minimum.
I’ve effectively stuck to advocates and bananas until now.
Today I experimented with some plain rice, about 3 tablespoons, and eggs, and I’ve tolerated these well tonight. Also distinguishing between radiotherapy and chemo reactions. Because the cancer is in my left groin lymph nodes and no primary has yet been found the oncologist and radiotherapist specialist decided to “zap” my entire pelvic region. So I can only put it that my breast and other areas ached due to the chemo and not the radiotherapy treatment.
I wish you well on this journey of yours and hope your experiences will not be as unpleasant as mine. I did not want to post to give you my “bad” reactions as You may not experience any at all. Please let me know how you are getting on. Susan