Hi Doris74
It’s 3 years since I had IV chemo but one thing I remember is that I rarely made use of much in my bag! One problem was that I had to have the cannula in my dominant arm, having lost all my left lymph nodes to the surgeon. Every time I fancied doing a puzzle, reading the paper, even unwrapping a sweet, it was very limiting. Hopefully you won’t be in that position. Take something to make you feel cosy, something you can put round your neck or legs if the chemo suite is air-conditioned. It can get chilly sitting there for several hours (there’s an awful lot of waiting around). Music to listen to on your headphones, a kindle, a tablet - they might be of use but don’t expect to be able to type away or turn the pages of a good paperback - holding a book open can be problematic. I took sugar free sweets and water (but they offer you water, tea, coffee…), a cashmere scarf, wore ‘just in case’ clothes like comfy joggers, cosy socks, warm hoodie and took plenty of things I couldn’t do because I couldn’t use my arm without setting off a beeper!
They understand nausea and side effects much better nowadays. You’ll be given a steroid, an anti-histamine and anti-emetic in your pre-chemo drip so you don’t need to worry about feeling ill. I never saw anyone being sick (my phobia) and only once witnessed a potential allergic reaction that was so swiftly and effectively dealt with that the patient continued her treatment but at a slower rate! They will provide you with a vast goody bag of preventative medications to take home. I’d say use them as prescribed rather than when you think you might need them, particularly the anti-emetic tablets. Take them regularly until you know how the drugs make you feel (it will change and it will improve as you get used to them - then you can use the meds ad hoc). You may have constipation (senna) or diarrhoea (loperamide) - you won’t know till you have your treatment. Depending on how strong the steroid, you may suffer from insomnia - or you may just want to sleep and sleep.
Mouth problems are common. The hospital does provide mouthwash but it could strip paint! Probably makes ulcers worse. A medical herbalist working for a breast cancer charity recommended a calendula (marigold) infusion and I still use it daily. You can buy dried marigold petals from Holland & Barrett, Amazon or a health food shop. I just put a tablespoonful in a small infuser, leave it for 10 minutes, remove the petals and let it cool. The soggy petals actually can be used to make tiny compresses that really do sooth ulcers, assuming you don’t get many and they are accessible! You will experience changes in taste which you have to experiment with. I lived on a very bland, nursery food diet for the duration, anything that didn’t require much cooking (ugh), didn’t smell and didn’t need much chewing. But some people do the opposite and dive into curries, things with strong flavour.
It may seem a long time (some treatments need to be administered gently) but it’s unlikely you’ll sleep as there is constant beeping from the various machines, nurses checking on you and other patients chatting. If you don’t want to chat, plug in your headphones - no one minds. Don’t expect to finish on time, so make sure your transport is flexible. All it needs is for your notes not to have been updated or lack of a second member of staff to supervise the checking of the drugs (they are very thorough) to set you back an hour or so - and I was never called in on time!
I hope all goes smoothly for you. Hopefully others will add to my suggestions. It’s stupid o’clock, I have chemo insomnia and I’m not sure what I’ve written lol. Hope it helps though. Just don’t worry about it - it’s all manageable and closely supervised and monitored. Best of luck,
Jan x
Doris