Chemo Session 2 - Not so SE Free :(

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Hi All

Long time no post :

Well, after my shaving of head incidence etc and relatively SE free 1st Chemo of EC, I seem to not be having a good time on round 2.
Just looking for some tips/guidance from anyone having similar issues.
It’s more niggly stuff than anything but sometimes niggly stuff is more annoying?!

  1. I am really super sensitive to smell - everything smelling fetid and odd (I’m very clean around the house) but if I spray with Neutrodol to try and mask the chemicals choke me (bugger :wink:

  2. When I yawn I hiccup once? Odd but annoying as I can’t have a really good yawn

  3. Sour milk taste in mouth seems constant - craving dairy but don’t like the taste of it at the moment which is odd, so drinking black tea (unheard of!) I’ve started using Corsodyl again but only temp relief from taste, just like having a bad morning breath all the time

  4. Tingling hands and feet - wakes me up sometimes in night

  5. General “malaise” weariness and wooziness - no temp.

I’ve been sleeping on and off a LOT and I’m feeling fairly isolated in the daytime as everyones at work and I’m bored of being skint, lonely, not working, not having any focus, tv, films, books. Grumble grumble moan moan :smiley: Think I should probably go for a walk today or something to clear some cobwebs!

Sorry to whinge - gets it off my chest so to speak :smiley:

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Hi El Katrano,
How well I remember those side effects, I found anything with ginger made my taste and mouth feel better. Ginger biscuits, ginger ale and ginger sweets. Pinapple was also another.I drank lots of flavoured water, even though I couldn`t distinguish the flavour.
If you are having 6 EC you are nearly halfway and things do seem to get better.
I am now two and a half years down the line and feeling good, although you may not feel on top of the world at the moment, there is light at the end of the tunnel.
All the best with your treatment.
Pam

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Thanks Pam I will try that :slight_smile: Stupid body eh?
I know, I’m nearly half way I keep telling myself this - braces and britches approach of the Yorkshire.
The smell thing is weird, gone round this morning trying to find the “source” of it and there isn’t one but opened all windows and trying to find stuff to do :smiley: Odd.

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It might help bear the SEs if you understand why they’re happening. With chemo, it kills off fast-growing cells, which is why the hair falls out because the follicles have had a kick in the teeth, but there are also a lot of fast-growing cells in the lining of your mouth going all the way through your insides to the other end, so you find your mouth might feel burnt or sore. (I’m convinced that’s what makes me fart loads as the wind happens at the same time as the sore mouth, and so smelly - ugh!)

Similarly there are a lot of fast-growing cells in the linings of the nose and sinuses, where you get a lot of your smells from. So just like things taste odd or horrid, so your nose is telling you that there’s a bad smell. There isn’t, really, it’s often that your nose is going into overdrive trying to figure out what’s going on. (Well the bit of your brain that deals with the messages from your nose, but you get the idea.)

Another mouthwash you might want to try is Difflam. It’s got a local anaesthetic in it, which might keep the taste thing at bay for a while. But that might upset the chemically smells you’re getting, so perhaps try ginger and/or pineapple first.

Haven’t had hands and feet going funny, so can’t suggest anything.

Malaise, yup, that’s the chemo! While it’s good to put up a fight, sometimes you do just have to give in to it. I find the first week after chemo is the worst, and I’ve been flattened by FEC4 this weekend, hopefully I’m coming out the other side of it as at least I’m sitting up and not lying down today! The sleeping’s another part of it. If you need a nap, have a nap.

If you can get out for a bit of a walk every day, even if it’s just to the end of the road and back, that will really help. A little bit of gentle exercise (no marathons!) helps to keep things moving and will help to shift the SEs a bit quicker.

This isn’t forever, even though it feels like it. Hang on in there and moan all you like, you know we’ll understand and sympathise! I’m not even going to say “half way there”, instead I’ll just say “one closer to the end of it”. Sometimes it’s better just to deal with the cycle you’re on and not even think about how many more you have to go through, as it’s a bit too much for a poor tired brain to process.

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Isn’t the taste/smell thing horrid? I found that when I took Nystan liquid for thrush of the oesophagus, the taste in my mouth improved a bit, so MAYBE you’ve a little thrush? Who knows! What’s nice - melon… And my chemo unit say FREEZE Pineapple… they recommend tinned pineapple in juice, frozen into ice cubes and sucked - they say it has different enzymes when it’s frozen for some reason, and works better than fresh. Not tried it yet, as I began to improve, but I pass it on for what it’s worth. When THE TASTE is at it’s worst, I can’t drink tea/coffee/wine (wihch is bad) NOR can I eat chocolate! How SAD is that!!! What IS nice though is fresh mint tea… cuts through the grot… I’m confident your house doesn’t smell - it’s all in the nose! My OH was telling me how lovely the honeysuckle in the garden smelt - me? Not a thing… nada. couldn’t smell it… Ah well. It WILL end… and thank you for providing the excuse for me to moan too!!! Jane

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Might not help, but the se’s you describe seem par for the course. I felt them last year. The smell and taste was awful. So you are certainly not alone, but that doesnt make it much easier. I found a quick note on my calender every day of how i felt really helped, i graded how bad or good i felt and specific symptoms. It was concrete evidence that the symptoms improved and it kept me going, knowing that i felt this ill on, say, day 6 last cycle too but by day 8 i felt loads better. I also drank appeltise, ate fresh fruit (melon thumbs up too!) but i lost a stone nearly tbh as just couldnt eat or drink. Am back to exact pre chemo body now a year later.

The other tip i have is box sets of funny sit coms (30rock was a good one) , a newspaper everyday and sitting in the shower with water beating on my head. The shower was a god send, it fills up all yoyr senses so can’t taste/smell/feel anything but lovely warm water. It was a way to move time along, made me feel fresh and could break my down moods.

Huge hugs, this will pass i promise you.

Vickie
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Oh! I am hating the smell thing. I find that the most difficult part of chemo!!:(( Well, unfortunately we give off some of the chemo poisons through our skin too. You may have noticed the smell being very intense in the first few days especially in the mornings!! Though 6 days post FEC, smell is finally going for me now!:slight_smile: ok for what helps:

-keep all the windows open to let fresh air.
-AIR PURIFIER can suck out most of the smell! A God-send if smell is making you neaseous! We got ours from amazon.

  • go outside for fresh air.
    -frequent body washes & change of clothes (helps to change your duvet cover frequently too !).
    -for tiredness- strangely going for light walks& light exercises help!:slight_smile:
  • plenty of water to keep the poisons flushing!

Also I think our sense of smell amplifies 1000x! So the smell may not be as much noticeable to others as it is to us! My hubby’s too kind he never mentioned it until I asked him about it!!! Even then he said he doesn’t think it’s as bad as I am describing to be!!

Ahhhhh!! I just want to fast forward myself to day 10 !:)))

Xx