I had my first chemo on Weds and I was expecting to be rough but not that rough. I was violently sick and had to get the doctor out as i couldn’t even keep down sips of fluid. It’s now day 5 and I still have no appetite.
I’m also wiped out with tiredness but keep feeling agitated - I can’t concentrate to read or watch TV. I also keep getting hot flushes.
Help! is all this normal and will I have to through this each time? When do you start to pick up again.
I feel like I’m sitting on the edge of life looking in, it’s so isolating and depressing.
Love, Elinda
I think you need to have your anti sickness meds changed for your next chemo.Tell your chemo unit what has happened-they can help more than your GP.the first week is the worst with chemo and by week 3 you should feel pretty normal[just in time for the next one!You may find tiny sips of chilled sparkling water will syay down or even suckin a fruit juice ice lolly.It is hard but your chemo team should be able to make sure it isnt so bad in future.
Good Luck,Valx
Your first experience of FEC sounds much like mine a few years ago.
As Val says, you may need to have your anti-sickness medication adjusted.
I was violently sick the first time and my face went bright orange, too (looked as tho’ I’d been ‘tangoed’).
I had the concentration problems too, really fidgety both mentally and physically. I used to stagger out for a short walk, which I made longer each day; that seemed to help a bit.
Also sucked sugar free lemon flavoured sweets (easy to carry around with you) and sipped chilled water with a squirt of lemon juice in.
The appetite thing; I did lose it for a few days after each chemotherapy, but it did come back and quicker each time, too. I found cereal bars and spicy sausage just about edible, but not much else - the odd banana, maybe.
In fact, the first FEC was by far the worst; the body learns to tolerate it and by the 6th I barely noticed it at all and was able to go back to work after only two days. So you may well be starting to feel a bit better even now. By the time you have the next one you will probably have been feeling pretty normal for at least a week or so, I imagine. But if you don’t feel as tho’ you are improving sufficiently inside the three week timeframe, you should of course mention it to someone who can help you.
I had a friend who had been a chemotherapy nurse AND who had had chemotherapy for breast cancer herself and she gave me a really wonderful tip to avoid being sick. It was to line my stomach with carbohydrate just before (or even during if you don’t get enough notice)chemotherapy. Mashed potato is ideal, but not very practical in hospital, so I used to make my own Yorkshire parkin and shovel that in when I was waiting. I think flapjacks might work too, or pasta salad??? Anyway, I was never sick again once I started doing that.
I am sorry you are having such a bad time with FEC - I was the same. Very very ill. After my first dose I vomitted so much blood that I was ambulanced into A&E in the middle of the night.
With all of the FEC doses I was unable to eat anything for more than a week afterwards and even then it was only thin veggy soup. In total I lost 3 stone. They could not find any kind of drug regimen to help with the nausea and so the onc swopped me to Taxotere - which was appalling for all sorts of other reasons.
I was always neutropenic after FEC - had 2 doses delayed - and was having to take GCSF jabs. After the 4th chemo the onc stopped it altogether. With all the best intentions they had never managed to solve the nausea problem and they were growing increasingly concerned about my weight loss.
Some people have no problems at all with FEC and some people, like myself, go to hell and back with it.
There is a very large question mark over the efficacy of adjuvant chemo with early stage ER+ cancers and in light of that debate I was happy to stop the chemo and move onto hormones & rads.
I hope they are able to help you out - keep nagging at them to work on it. Buccastem is a useful little pill to get from the GP - it dissolves under your lip - it gave me just enough respite to keep tiny sips of fluids down. Valium is good too - it has anti-emetic qualities. But unfortunately, in my case, they never managed to solve the problem.
I used to have FEC on a tuesday, I used the coldcap and the nurses were always advising I would turn green while still in the chemo suite, once I got home I went straight to bed, be sick that night, and virtually stay in bed until Friday when the effects would be wearing off. I just slept and slept as hated the dizzy hung over feeling. My 2nd week I would get my taste buds and appetite back and get out walking the 3rd week I would be back to normalish and enjoy a friday pub lunch with my girlfreinds.
My Onc did suggest more tablets for the sickness but they made me feel worse, thy just kept the sick feeling longer.
Hope you emerge from the smog soon, I did my chemo 3 years ago and still remember how shocked I was at my lack of energy. Lukily I had neighbours and sister offered to do the school run and my chemo days woked well with my husbands shifts, I also ignored all housework.
Hi
I am sorry you had such a terrible time. Have ginger biscuits to help with your sickness. It helped me. Make sure you stay away from people with infections day 7-14. Apparently that is when you are at your most vulnerable when you have had chemo! Did you have red wee?
All the best for your next session. Dee xx
Hi there, I can tell you my first FEC was also horrible, I was voilently sick, terrible nausea, couldn’t eat anything, or keep water down. The feeling lasted a good week. I had 3x FEC and each time I was sick. Although on the last one I was probably sick the most however it only lasted 3 days rather than the week. I almost spent Xmas day in hospital, however Miraculously the sickness stopped and I was able to keep fluids down. Try and get stronger anti-sickness coz the ones I had didn’t work at all. I’m on Docetaxel now - just one more to go and for me its been a walk in the park by comparison.
I do hope things improve for you.
Mandy x
Hi there, Sorry to hear your experience is so bad, in comparison mine has been fine. The worst is the heartburn/ indigigestion for me but it hasnt interfered with my life in anyway. I can recommend flattish ginger bear for nausea, seems to just take the taste away for me. I also drank loads of water day before and on day as recommended on top tips for chemo and maybe that helped too. I will be on docetaxel after this and pleased to read what Mandy has said, hope same true for me.
I was very sick on FEC 1, 2, 4,and 5. I had Palonosetron for FEC 6 and although I was still sick once it was MUCH better. Please don’t suffere in silence as you can have the district nurses come out to give you injections of Cyclizine, they do a night service too.
So sorry you had such a dreadful time. Please make a real fuss about getting the right anti emetics…some hopsitals don’t give the stronger drugs without a bit of persuasion. Any of the …esetron drugs work on most people (granisetron, ondanesetron etc.)
Also wanted to sympathise with tiredness, depression side effects. I’ve had laods of chemo now and this has been my worse side effect. I find it awful…and so little you can do when you feel like that. The only thing I can say is that each time when I’ve been in the depths of despair unable to exist with tiredness if you know what I mean… I can’t imagine ever feeling right again (know that outside looking in feeling) but I do, I always do.