According to medical dictionaries, chemotherapy is "the treatment of disease, especially cancer, using drugs that are toxic chemical agents that are destructive to malignant cells and tissues." Now anything that uses toxic chemicals and is destructive to tissues can't be the greatest thing for the body, but it is way better than the alternative.
Each type of cancer will have a different regime of chemotherapy and every person may react to that regime differently. I can only explain how mine affected me. I was given two different chemo drugs: cisplatin and etoposide. To give you a better idea of how strong these chemicals are only specially trained people are allowed to handle them, and with the etoposide they have to wear special gloves when handling the bags.
I would sit or lay down in this small cramped room with four other people for atleast seven hours a day for five days. Sometimes I would have to recieve blood tranfusions because the chemo would affect my platelet count. On those days I would be there for over nine hours. The chemo literally beats you down. It affects all aspects of your body from your white count which controls you immune system, your platelets which is your energy, to things like losing your hair. This is where knowledge comes in hand. The internet is full of information on different things you can eat to bring up your counts, and even different techniques to help your hair grow quicker.
I also experienced nausea during my three months of chemotherapy. Granted in this day in age, with all of the medicine that is out there, this is not as common as it was ten years ago but it does still happen. I just sucked it up and figured it could be worse. My mom, however, was not as easy going as I was. She worked with the staff at the hospital to find me the most effective drugs to stop the nausea. Some rounds were better than others, but unfortunately, there was never one without the nausea completely. As hard as it may be to believe, this was actually not the toughest thing for me to deal with during my treatment.
There were two things that were hardest for me during my months of chemo. The first was not having any energy whatsoever. I could not come to terms with the reality of having to just lay around because I didn't have the energy to do anything else. I would just sleep and lay on the couch and not really ever get up. I am the type of person that was always doing something. Relaxing was not really something I did so you can understand why it was so hard.
The other thing that was very hard for me to deal with was the way I recieved my chemotherapy. Like I said in an earlier post, I made the decision to get my chemo through IVs. I made this choice because I was vain and I didn't want a port in my chest because of how it would look. I figured since I had great veins that were huge, and all throughout my arms, I would have no problem doing IV therapy. I could not have been more wrong. I didn't realize how strong the chemo was and the effects it would have on my veins. I watched them go from monster veins to almost non-existent. To make it worse all this happened by my third round of chemo and I still had three to go.
This was a big problem because my veins had shrunk and now I had to slow down the rate the chemo was going into my body and that meant longer days. Also if the flow of the chemo became too quick it would blow out the vein and infuse into the skin which is no good at all. At that point they would have to stop everything and re-stick me with another IV. With my veins being so bad it was incredibly hard to find one and now I was getting stuck several times a day. It got to a point near the end that I was praying and talking to my veins, begging that they make it through the day so I would not have to get stuck again. To me my veins became like little warriors, they had to survive a day or two and then I would pick another vein to take over. To this day, four months after I finished my chemo, my veins are still not back and some are completely damaged, but it was worth it in the end.
Chemotherapy is not fun at all and that should be expected because the main job of it is to kill the cancer. The healthy cells are just causualties of war. If I was ever in the position of having to go through chemo again I would not hesitate, but I would be a little smarter and go with a port. The pain of IV therapy will never be worth the vanity of having to walk around with a port. Like everything that goes along with battling cancer, a strong and solid mindset will make things a little easier.
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