hey all
second fec today, and when the epirubicin was being put in the pain reduced me to tears. like a spanner.
the nurse stopped it and waited for a bit, checked the bain and needle and it calmed down, the seline didnt hurt, nor the others just the red.
have been really worried about it. it didnt hurt first time, but will this happen again
kazx
Hi Kaz,
Simple answer is no. It shouldn’t happen at all. If all is well you shouldn’t feel any pain and you were right to tell them as soon as you felt it. Hopefully you have no permanent damage and if the pain subsided immediately it’s likely you’re fine. You need to be very vigilant for any sign of leakage into the skin from the vein during the injection as it is very toxic and can cause permanent tissue damage. If you are unsure please ask your BCN or the nurses in the chemo unit to explain what caused your pain.
best wishes that things will go smoothly from now on.
Jan xx
thanx jan b… she seemed to be happy it hadnt leaked. as the redness went down, its not hurting at all now
G’day Kaz,
Glad that your arm is better now, but please let the oncologist know before your next chemo of your problems.
Take care and good luck with your next one.
Kulakatz
aww, hon. i am sorry that the epi is doing this to you! I was the same with mine. I finished mine Feb this year.
Can you have a word with your onc about it?? my onc team would use a microwave hot pad on my chemo arm, which helped.
eva
I had to go to the Out of Hours Docs the weekend after my 2nd Fec, as my right arm had a red sore lump on it, and the veins were peculiar looking. They gave me huge doses of Penicillin, for a week, and my Oncology nurse subsequently delayed my next Fec a week as I was on the ABs.Anyway, I had my 3rd lot of “poison” and the arm wasn’t red any more, but still lumpy. Before the 4th I asked the Chemo nurse about my arm, as it still had weird lumps and hollows on it ( patchwork, someone said, a good desription!). She actually got a Doctor to come and look, and she wasn’t sure, but thought it was cellulitis or similar, and asked her “Boss” to come and look.The upshot was more strong ABs, and they said to have the Chemo in my affected side as the other arm was now no good!That was my last Chemo, as my bone marrow was rubbish at making the required new cells, and my haemaglobin had gone down from 12.4 to 8, since my chemo began! I had a blood transfusion 2 days later, again into my affected side, it worried me a bit, but I knew I was feeling quite poorly with the lack of red cells, so accepted it.
Like some others of you, I still have an awful right arm, hard vein, and horrible to look at, and even the affected arm has it to a much lesser degree, I keep hoping it will clear up soon, I had my last chemo at the end of September, and it sounds like i have to put up with it a lot longer? I wonder why they can’t come up with something kinder to our veins??
Heather.
Hello!
I have only just started on chemo, but due to issues with my vein this time - and the fact that I can only use one arm (previous mx) - I’m having a ‘line’ permanently put in under the skin which means they put the chemo through this instead of the vein on my hand next time. It stays in until all the treatment is finished, prevents collapsed veins and is much less uncomfortable (and quicker)
You may already have gone down this route, but there are a number of different ones - Hickman, Picc etc, but it might be worth asking.
Annie