Anyone doing Chemoradiation?

Hello - My colorectal cancer was stage t4, large, some blocking, completely around the sigmoid, but without spread, last August 2023.

I do okay, still exercise but I am like a diesel engine, takes me a while to warn up.

This place is a satellite of main campus Not buzzy at all Its bring your own food or eat nothing I found the hospital lab on a normal work load takes 10-15 at max told an hour for the lab appointment 8:30 then wait for a body to look at the labs another hour, then call to main office another hour and then drugs come Been at the site since 8:30 am and drugs not starting until 12:00 I guest this is their feeling we have no other life that this clinic
This is the constant lying I get shoveled to me when I can disprove their procedure. Last appt a nurse aid insist I was there for a treatment. I keep saying no it is a toxic blood draw that's all. She was adamant until she looked up the appt on the computer and saw she was wrong. No I am sorry or yes you are correct. If she does this again I will say gee I am sorry you are correct. SO many of the professionals demand you jump to their commands. I get them by saying please and thank you. The stares I get for just some simple words SO I am labeled as difficult patient I tell them be truthful if you don't know say so we can work it out. No just keep piling lies on top of lies

My experience from a timing was similar - some time (15 min) to review symptoms and check vitals/weight, 60-90 minutes to get the labs done and reviewed by the oncologist, then some variable wait for the pharmacy to mix/deliver the chemicals per the doctor's order, then the initial port entry/flush/steroid followed by the leucovorin, then the oxaliplatin and last the 5FU. Once confident that the 5FU infusion/pump was working and I wasn't having a bad reaction, they'd send me home with the pump to return 46 hours later. Overall, I'd get there at 9-9:30AM and leave around 3:00-3:30PM. I got so tired doing nothing.

The port being red and itchy is pretty normal.

At Red Wing I could munch on cookies and order a lunch from the cafeteria which would be delivered to the infusion center. They had an infusion room with capacity of 5 patients, but also had one private room with TV which I occasionally was lucky to get. Even during COVID, they were pretty much at full capacity.

Same here except I was on a two-week cycle for the infusions.

Hi @michaelfromsf, I read in your bio that you have had 5 different cancers. That's more than one would like to put a body through. I'm grateful that you are here to tell us about your experiences and to support those new to "cancerland."

May I ask what stage your colorectal cancer was? How are you doing with managing the fatigue?

every 12 days if I can get the hopital folks to work with me Think I should be there at *;30 am then sit for an hour & half to see a doctor to tell me labs are good They have been since I started this treatment Then sit for 6 hours with drugs going into me I have done some calling like lab & pharmacy to find out how long they take. Boy am I being lied to on how much time they need So since they are so dead set on me being there early guess who is going directly from the farm no shower no clean clothes.to them Hope they enjoy the auora
Port still itches and is red but nobody seems to care

@cvestor, good questions. My dad found that there was a pattern to the days following chemo. For him the first couple of days he actually felt pretty good because of the steroids in the infusion. Once those wore off, he too was under the weather for 5 days or so and then gradually felt better each day. His infusions were every three weeks. How often are your chemo sessions?

Is the port itching less now that it has healed more?

He is showing side effects now at end of week 2. Burning sensation and cystitis. He is off plant based only diet now and is having occasional fish and egg reintroduced to his diet as I can’t give him pulses and legumes as before but we still manage to avoid “white empty foods”. Will assess how he progresses next week with diet.

@uc2rc ,did you start treatments? How are you feeling?

@clarkshir, how is your husband doing on 5FU and radiation? How many more treatments does he have?