Getting My Chemotherapy Education
My chemo teaching appointment for today (by the way, isn't that poor grammar? Shouldn't it be chemo education?) was with a chemo advice nurse at the Breast Care Center. However, my buddy nurse saw me on the schedule and offered to handle my appointment.
She gave me a bunch of handouts that described general chemotherapy side effects and those specific to the chemo drugs I will be given, then she went through everything step-by-step. Of course, everything is color-coordinated and 3-hole punched to fit into the chemotherapy tab of my "You've Got Cancer" binder.
As she explained it, for each infusion appointment I:
- Go to the lab for bloodwork
- Meet with my oncologist and/or her nurse practitioner
- Go to the infusion center for the infusion
Each infusion will take several hours, and given everything else that happens, I should allow a whole day.
The main side effects that she went over were nausea, fatigue, hair loss, appetite and taste changes, diarrhea or constipation, mouth sores, menopause, fever and infection.
For nausea, they prescribe a number of anti-nausea meds that you take starting with your infusion and continuing for several days. You don't wait until you feel nauseated, and you kind of "layer" the anti-nausea meds so that you have a lot in your system. They really don't want you throwing up and becoming dehydrated.
Another concern is diarrhea and constipation. They have guidelines for all of these things. For example, if you have diarrhea for a certain length of time (I'm skimming past the details here!) you have to contact them for advice. They don't want you getting dehydrated from that, either.
Fever and infection seems to be the biggest fear, so there is a list of instructions for that. If you get a fever of 101 or if you get chills, you have to call in immediately and talk to an on-call oncologist if it is past normal hours. If you can't reach something, you have to go to an emergency room. If an infection gets into your bloodstream, it can kill you, so I can see why this would be a top concern.
With Taxotere, she said that the top side effects are low white blood cell count, nausea and vomiting, hair loss, rash, water retention, and neuropathy (tingling and numbness in the hands and feet). Gosh, sign me up! I could also have an allergic reaction to the drug, get mouth sores and muscle aches, and develop shortness of breath or fluid in the lungs.
Cytoxan had some similar side effects, as well as fatigue, menopause, and more common mouth sores. She said that because Cytoxan is really hard on the bladder, it's critical that I drink a lot of water in the first few days to flush the drug out. Otherwise, it's possible to develop permanent bladder problems. Hmmm, that gives one pause!
She said that I may get side effects that they didn't list. Those are called "my personal side effects." She laughed and said that I get to keep those, as there is not much they can do about them. Everyone has their individual response and they have no way of knowing what chemo will be like for me.
They included a list of local wig shops in the back. She laughed and said that I didn't need those-I'd already emailed her pictures of the wigs I've ordered.
We talked about questions that were specific concerns for me and she made notes to pass along to the oncologist, and then we were done. I put the handouts in my binder and headed home. If I hadn't already been reading up on chemo and side effects, I might have found the whole thing scary, but it's just more of the same right now. Maybe I'll be one of those women who has very few side effects!
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