The Bad Radiotherapy and Chemotherapy Weeks and Back in Hospital
(To read my cancer story from the beginning start here – April / May 2018 – You Have Cancer)
It was now Monday, 3 weeks in to radiotherapy, I’d had one session of Chemo and was about to start my 2nd session of Chemotherapy.
My mum took me in to Coventry about 9:00, I had my usual checks got myself comfortable and was hooked up to my bag.
It was much the same as week one, given cardboard hats to pee in and a sheet of paper and pen to note how often I was peeing and how much.
I had my phone with me a newspaper and a couple of books but to be honest, read very little and hardly touched my phone, it may sound like a long old slog 6 – 7 hours of receiving chemo, but amazingly the time really flies by and it may sound strange but I really loved it.
The nurses were great and I even saw my old mate John from the ward I was on during my 2nd hospital stay.
It was only then whilst chatting with him, I discovered he was having similar treatment to and he was having radiotherapy after his chemo that day as well.
It then became a race between us as to who would get to the radiotherapy machine 1st (I won) π
I felt absolutely fine at the end of the chemo, was given my usual anti sickness medication and was wheeled down for my radiotherapy session (they still liked pushing me around in a chair) even though I could walk fine.
My mum picked me up and took me back to her home (I was still staying with parents week days) and I was fine until about 7:00 when I suddenly felt groggy so went to bed.
I wasn’t actually sick, but felt as though I was going to be all night.
The next morning I was no better and on the way to my sessions the next day was sick for the 1st time, even whilst having my mask put on I felt really sick and was worried what would happen if I was sick whilst strapped to the table
That night I was getting more and more sick and also my temperature was up, something I had been warned to keep an eye on.
By Wednesday I wasn’t actually being sick as there was nothing to come out but I was constantly heaving and producing lots of saliva, my ghost of things to come was concerned and I was admitted to hospital again.
It turned out they weren’t just concerned about my sickness, but more about my temperature, general wellness, losing weight, etc. and were concerned I had an infection.
I ended up spending another 7 days in hospital, mainly because they were worried about getting fluids in to me and I was an intravenous antibiotics which couldn’t be done at home.
The 1st couple of days were quite grim, the feeling sick was always there, not quite as bad as I was on some pretty powerful anti-sickness medicine, but as soon as I cut down a bit the sickness came back (I later discovered this was as much to do with the anti-biotics I was on as the chemo)
Despite that, in a way it was nice being back in hospital
I was back on My Ward with mu usual nurses and a couple of new ones.
I was talking to one about my different treatments and she asked if I had anything else, I showed her the scar on my leg where they had taken the bone from and told her it was a shark bit. SHARK BITE! she exclaimed, where did you get that from? – she was nearly as gullible as my wife π I told her the truth afterwards and she smiled.
What was also nice was it meant no having to travel the 30 miles, the car park queues, etc. to go for my daily radiotherapy treatments – Instead I was just wheeled down from my ward every day :-
By the 4th or 5th day I was feeling a lot better, the sickness was no where near as bad but I was still producing a lot of saliva (which carried on for the next couple of months)
The only real reason they were keeping me in hospital now was due to the course of intravenous anti-biotics I was on.
One bit of good news I had before being discharged was my oncologist had decided not to bother with my final session of chemotherapy as she thought it was doing more harm than the good it was doing.
I was eventually discharged, given more anti sickness drugs and a further course of anti-biotics which I was to have through my tube this time – I later referred to this as the devils water
Story continues here – Last Couple of Weeks of Radiotherapy »
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