So sorry to hear this. Awful for you.
Did you have GSF injections to keep neutrophils high? How did you know that had gone too low? Just feel really rotten. My poor Godmother got sepsis so nervous!
Everyone has different side effects with the chemo.
I suffered bad with them all headaches, diarrhoea, sickness,no taste or bad tast, no appitite, lost hair, nails went black and peeled of,I had a big problem with my eating…I didnt for about 5 days, was given those complan drinks which I lived on.
My way of dealing with it all was to hibernate in my bed.i did end up in hospital twice with sepsis after number 1 chemo and number 4 …the oncologist lowered the dose after each time…cos my body obv couldn’t cope.
I had a commode in my bedroom and a sick bowl on the bed!
Didn’t like those days at all…that’s what I mean by awful!
Always ring your red card if worried about your side effects, and listen to your body.
Oh my goodness poor you! twice! Were you given GS-F injections to try and stop you going neutropenic? So sorry that happened to you sounds miserable
Yes I had to inject myself with filgastrim during the first week of each cycle. We are given an emergency number to ring if we have a fever of 37.5 or above. On day 7 of cycle 5 I had a slight fever (38) in the afternoon. I waited for 2h then took my temperature again and it had not come down so I rang the emergency number and the doctor at the end of the phone asked me a number of questions then asked me if someone could take me to the hospital (if not they were willing to send an ambulance), so my husband drove me to the hospital and I walked in to acute oncology. The doctor examined me, nurses took blood tests and I even had a chest X-ray. I was hoping that they would allow me to go back home later in the evening but that’s when the doctor popped in to say that my neutrophils count was very low so they kept me overnight on a drip of broad spectrum antibiotic. The next day the neutrophils count had gone back to normal so it wasn’t so serious after all. But on the strength of this the oncologist decided to lower my cycle 6 dose by 20%. So I felt in safe hands. Just make sure to keep the emergency number on hand.
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Agree .mthe side effects for me have been manageable and mild. I was very nervous of chemo before i started
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Glad to hear you are going for it. Please remember that although nobody reports back on what a pleasant experience it was, extreme side effects are the exception rather than the rule. There are some people who seem to sail through it, others not so good. I would say mine was somewhere in the middle - pretty damn horrid but I never thought of quitting because you know exactly how many sessions you have to get through. You will find that once you get in the groove you’re on the path which has its own routine and you will know exactly how to pace yourself. Everybody is different but I found I was fine and dandy for about three days, then a really nasty 3/4 days and then you lift up again quite quickly and can do nice things. Hair is a pain but I found some nice wigs. Eyelash loss actually affected me more as there’s really not much you can do about it, but they soon come back, ditto toe nails which I was amused to find on the bedroom floor one day, nobody having mentioned their likely loss. You soon put it all behind you although I did develop an addiction to watching Say Yes to the Dress in the afternoons whilst scoffing Haribos. Can’t stand the sigh of them now.
Well done with your decision and I wish you the very best.
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I was offered chemo with Herceptin to treat my HER2+ cancer but declined it as the benefits are only about 3% and it was a years treatment with all the side effects, hair loss etc. i didn’t feel it was worth putting myself through it.
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I had this exact same decision to make in 2013 when I first had breast cancer. I had a 2.5 cm breast tumour and no activity in my lymph nodes. I was given the choice and chose not to have chemo. I had radiotherapy. In 2022 - secondary breast cancer stage 4 diagnosed. Not sure if I had chemo back then, if it would have made a difference.
I am so very sorry to hear this. I guess with no activity in lymph nodes chemo wouldn’t have been such a pull because it sounded liked it had been contained. How rotten for you. Thank you so much for sharing x