Chemo days

[wannalive]

Hello everyone
I'm sitting here with my IV so I will continue my thread here
My third day has passed and i'm ok

I had slight problems of nausea and acid but nurses has fixed that with antiemetics and kortizon as I inform them.
first night I had one time vomit, a little only.

I couldn't eat lunch yesterday and felt pretty fatigue, also due to a little sleep. but I eat well (let's say) and sleep more now it is ok

I check every med. I take, (recommendation from Armstrongs book)
luckly I catch the nurse giving me belomycin, which is wrong. I see errors can happen anywhere keep your eyes open.
I"ll talk to professor today about this, I see a doctor and a supervisor checked my document however I was about to get something not for me.

Fish makes me nauseaus, food is not so good for my taste; I bring my own cheese and some snacks for support. chicken is ok

friends are relief, it is nice to have accompany for 2 hrs at least
they bring me comics etc, tv is not so attractive as I don't speak french and dutch.

nurses are great by the way, always smiling helping,
hospital is also very clean, no bad smell, free supplementary drinks etc.

I got a lot of infusion through the day and nurses tell me there is no need to flush my self with extra water. I think all other comments mentioned here are during home leave. I drink normal quantity of water/juice etc.

I start Etoposide at 16:00 and Cisplatin 20:00
I wake up every 1,5 hrs for peeing ~0,6lt during night due to flush during this time

thats all for now
Bekir

[willgetoverit]

Hi Bekir,

Soon, all this will be behind you and the chances that you're gonna be cured are very very high. Keep up the positive attitude. Any fight is as much a mental one as it is a physical one.

I've not been through chemo so cant give you many tips and techniques on how to handle it. But hang in on tc-cancer.com and I am sure you're gonna find folks who've been there, done that and would lend a helping hand when you need it.You are going to be cured!

willgetoverit.

[dadmo]

Bekir:
The nurses are probably infusing you with plenty of fluids but I would still drink extra.

[TCLEFT]

Dadmo is correct. You want your kidneys working well to flush as much out as possible. Chemo is working to rid you of the cancer, but don't let any more stay in you system than you need. They may be giving you a shot that will accelerate urinating at the end of each treatment. You'll want plenty of fluids now. You'll get past this. Hang in there.

[wannalive]

a quick update

Just an update

I finished chemo last wednesday and felt pretty fatigue until friday
I had acid reflux on thursday evening and got Zantac 300 on friday
however I got another acid refluc on friday evening and had to go to emergency
on saturday morning, they give me another thing from Merck, which has same effect as nexium. I wish they explained me this before that medrol can give me this bad side effect
I had so much stomach pain and sleepless 2 nights.

I felt better the more I eat, so I eat well.
I had some metallic taste for few days then it was over, so I'm lucky I think.
My hair is still here, however today my beard start to fell off.
I'll keep it until it looks obvious to cut it out. Hair still ok but I think soon I have to shave it

I feel strangely hungry and eat a lot since 5 days, it is strange to have this much hunger after 2-3 days of stopping steroids.

I calculated my fluid out flow during chemo, 40 lt in 5 days, 8 lt per day average. I think this is ok, I didn't drink much during chemo
what is the average of other patients in US with drinking ?
Even 8 lt made me sick of going to toilet every hour and filling that stupid plastic

I had very bad nausea to some foods and some smell during chemo, so I kept the window open in my room for a long time. I couldn't stand the smell of some fish, but some are ok and chicken is fine. This was over when I got back home

I had strange feeling yesterday afternoon after lunch(7 days after chemo), I went to the first aid room to have a short nap, but I slept all afternoon until 16:30, it was strange

I got hyperventilation on sunday (4 days after chemo), all day short of breath

I got higher pulse and blood pressure since begining of chemo 90-95 pulse
140/80 blood pressure, they say these are all expected

even now I got tired very easily however I'm back to normal life 4 days after coming back home, working and going out. Until than noise and smoke had started headache.

I cannot explain the fatigue and pain during day 4-5-6-7, as if I had beaten badly after running a maraton and this pain doesnot goes away even during resting

looking forward to 2nd round next friday
I don't use any medication except nexium derivative since day 7, I got litigan and medrol for 2 days after returning back to home only

If next rounds will be the same I think I'm doing pretty good

[dadmo]

Congratulations on getting that one over with. From what you describe you're having a fairly normal rersponse to chemo. That is also good news. Good luck with the next few rounds.

[wannalive]

hair is gone

since 3 days I had weak hair
today in the shower most of it is easly get loose
therefore I shaved my head
body hair also reduced

eyebrow and eye lashes still here, hopefully to stay

this was expected but not before 2nd round of chemo
I feel coooold and weird without hair

at least it looks ok

[petep]

by the end you will not give a hoot about hair and find that it is pretty darn convenient without it....but when it comes back it's nice...being in s. florida I had to wear a hat when in the sun...but no hat everywhere else...

great attitude you've got....stay strong....it'll pass quick....

[wannalive]

acid and akne

I'm back to life from 2nd cycle
this was better than the first one inspite of hair loss and smell problem

I still have acid problem and doubled dose of omeprazole since friday
I even get my stomach checked by endescopy due to ulser concern, I visited emergency twice for acid burning, after each cycle
they say some inflammation but nothing serious, however I have a lot of pain

this has nothing to do with Medrol (cortison), which was first idea after 1st cycle, because I didn't use medrol after 2nd cycle and I got the same problem

Can anyone recommend me something to avoid acid in stomach ?
I find apple and yoghurt soothing but not a cure
Doctors doubled dose of omeprazole to 40mg however there is only marginal improvement

I'm also eating a lot! because of this pain, it makes me hungry and I have put up 4 kgs already, which makes me feel not good, although this is not so important

other than this I start to have akne all over my body and a lot of gas coming out from back
Any recommendations ?

Other than these I'm very good and perfectly supporting the chemo
I'll have a CT check on 17 Nov just before 3rd chemo

Cheers

[Michael112]

Try liquid chlorophyl for gas.

[wannalive]

Questions again

Hi

I'm through 3rd cycle now and got my 2nd CT last friday
today I had a discussion with prof. 10 min ago

She says almost no change on size and she will continue until and check the size later. probably surveillance afterwards.
We expect no shrinkage because a-typical calcifications, and normally this is a good sign that the tumor is not trying to get bigger and metasthesis anymore. but anyway this is not typcial of seminoma why?

I read some study about PET scan, it can show alive cancer cells in the remaining mass and helpful in deciding an operation, but she says for semionoma PET is not an approved procedure yet and also semionoma is diffucult to operate due to no good differentiation with neighbouring vein, cells etc. they didn't do here for many years.

I'll check internet for these but any help is welcome.
She doesnot want to do PET and operation basically however another onc. advised to do that so I need to investigate again.

-----------
update of my condition
my stomack was not so good so I started omeprazole 20 mg, than again I had problem and I got endoscopy of stomack, not so nice but not so difficult.
no scar, small inflammation but they accept to increase dose to 40mg, since than I'm ok, I got a lot of weight because I ate a lot to reduce acid and pain

from3rd cycle they start to give a pill 1hr before chemo and it minimized any stomack problem, its is quite nice, I'll get the name and write here
they said this is new in this center and works fine for me

Bye

[wannalive]

otshrinkingSeminoma

Hello

I found that unless the tumor gets bigger or tumor markers arise procedure is to continue 4xEP

however I appreciate if anyone can give me experience or study results in case of non shrinking seminoma. I feel stressed about it

Thank you

[wannalive]

CAT viable

ok I found CAT is viable option but from pubmed and NCCN guidelines of 2007 v.1
I think I can convince prof. with this

also with this
Testicular Seminoma
Last Updated: September 13, 2006
Author: John W Davis, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Urology, MD Anderson Cancer Center, The University of Texas

Did anyone had surgery after seminoma >3 cm residual mass
any feedback ?

I wish it goes to <2 cm and I can forget it
otherwise we have to decide surgery, surgery/salvage or surveillance
which is very diffucult