This Too Shall Pass

I've fielded a lot of questions about my chemotherapy treatment, so I thought it would be a good idea to spend a post talking about exactly what it is. Warning: not much humor here - most of this post will be factual information, and most of it is stolen from various pamphlets I received on my first day of treatment.

Basically, chemotherapy describes a class of drugs that are used to destroy cancer cells. Cancer cells grow and divide quickly, and chemotherapy works best on fast-growing and -dividing cells. Unfortunately, hair, skin, and intestinal cells also grow quickly and these are also destroyed by chemo (which explains the trademark side effects of chemo).

There are several kinds of drugs that fall under the umbrella term of "chemotherapy." Some are injected, some are given in pill form, and some are topical. Most times, chemo is given in "rounds" or "cycles" where a patient receives treatment for a period of time, then gets a break so that healthy cells can regenerate. The length of the cycles depend on the drug(s) used.

The plan for my treatment is to have two separate courses lasting four months. For the first two months I am receiving two drugs by injection every two weeks: Adriamycin and Cytoxan. For the second two months I can't remember what drug I'm getting... it begins with a T. It will also be given by injection every two weeks.

The side effects of chemo are pretty well-known, but I'll review them. I have experienced or am experiencing most of them. At the moment, though, I'm feeling pretty damn good.

• Nausea and vomiting (along with lack of appetite). This is the big one. I started feeling sick the evening I received my first treatment. Since then, my appetite has been off and on. When I don't want to eat, there is nothing I can imagine putting in my stomach. But when I'm hungry, I tend to eat whatever I want until I'm full because I don't know how long it's going to last.
  
• Fatigue. Oh yeah. How can I possibly sleep all day and still feel tired? On Monday, all of my muscles felt like I'd exercised them to the point of exhaustion. Just being still hurt. The fatigue is also related to having low blood counts because the heart has to pump more to deliver oxygen throughout the body.
• Hair loss. Although some patients do not lose their hair with some types of chemo, I have been assured that I will lose my hair. At this point, it's coming out more than usual (I see more of it in the shower drain), but I haven't lost it in clumps, yet. One of the neat things is that I will lose all of my hair. No more need to shave my legs! :-)
• Various digestive problems. I don't want to dwell on this too much, but it's pretty twisted that you can have both problems... too often and not often enough. I hate cancer.
• Menopause-like symptoms. One other thing that can happen with chemotherapy is the damage or the temporary shut-down of the ovaries. Therefore, all the hormone-related things that happen with menopause can happen during chemotherapy. So when you all write those sappy responses to my blog posts and I start crying in my office, I'll blame it on the chemo :-) Just kidding. Mostly.
• I think that covers the most common symptoms, but here are some "extras" from my chemo booklet:
• Anemia, Bleeding, Fluid Retention, Infection, Infertility, Mouth and throat changes, Nervous system changes, Skin and nail changes, Photo-sensitivity, Eye problems, etc.

Well, that covers all the doom and gloom. I have to say, when I'm feeling like crap, I want the world to end. Part of that is because it's so discouraging. I wonder if it will ever end, or if I'll feel just as bad as I do that moment for the next four months. It's pretty depressing. That's why I didn't blog for a few days. I do not want to dwell on it when I'm still feeling it, because I feel like I'm just making it worse for myself. It's much easier to talk about it in the past tense when I'm feeling good. I know that the effects are cumulative - I will probably feel worse after my later treatments than I did after the first one. However, now I know what it feels like and I know it will eventually end. "This too shall pass." I can say that now :-)

Anyway, let me know if I didn't answer any of the chemo questions you may have had. I plan to do some other posts about some of the factual information (especially the genetics).