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Coming off chemotherapy

User
Posted 21 May 2020 at 21:41

Has anybody had experience of coming off chemotherapy - just wondering what withdrawal symptoms you had. My oh had emergency insertion of uretal stents one month after his last chemo session. He is having a very hard time after coming home with hardly any appetite, weight loss and nausea which we can just about control with medication.  The fatigue is debilitating and we just wondered how long it takes to get over the chemotherapy.I know everyone is different.

User
Posted 21 May 2020 at 22:39
These don't sound so much like side effects of coming off the chemo; more like withdrawal symptoms from the steroids. Also query infection from the stent op or progression of the cancer - have his bloods been checked?
"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Soren Kierkegaard

User
Posted 21 May 2020 at 23:10

Yes, I have total experience of coming off of chemo. For me, the three month course of  Docetaxyl was a complete waste of time. Ironically, my PSA shot up, I suffered terrible skin damage on my feet. Curiously, in the space of a month after finishing, I lost my three tooth dental bridge and found the rest of my teeth became very fragile. In that respect, it screwed up my erstwhile half decent month. The skin on my toes blackened and my toe nails just became a crumbly mess. 
Although I cant prove it, I believe that such was the toxic explosion my body became subjected to, my kidney issues tied in with having just had chemo. I too had to have a stent as the cancer I never knew was going on at the point of anastomosis had rendered me incontinent. Such was the failure of chemo in arresting any progress of the cancer that the para aortic lymph node putting pressure on my ureter necessitated urgent insertion of a JJ stent. This immediately had a positive effect as well as bringing my ridiculously high Creatinine levels (it was to get much worse a further year down the line but that’s another story.)

Fatigue was seriously badly and took about six months to resolve to more manageable levels but I can advise that chemo fatigue is nowhere near as debilitating as that caused by kidney failure and sky rocketing Creatinine levels.

i hope this has given you some personal comparators and wish you strength and courage fighting this b****** disease. 

User
Posted 22 May 2020 at 00:41

Thank you for the replies. He has had his bloods checked and creatinine levels are now at acceptable level after being horribly high like you Bazza. He has quite severe neuropathy in his feet and some in fingers, as well as the chemo nails !  Yes the steroids have played a part. Initially he was told to more or less stop taking them once course had finished and he had to go back on to a reducing regime over 5 weeks so is now off them completely.We are getting good support from gp and district nurses and he is trying really hard to eat and drink more each day but as he says all this has totally wiped him out. Here 's hoping tomorrow will be better and we will ask if he can be checked for infection. Nobody has mentioned that so far. I fear progression but the post chemo scans showed positive results with spine healing and liver tumours shrinking. He had 6/10 sessions before covid 19 stopped his treatment. Next consultant phone call in june.

Good night all - guess I should get some sleep.☺

 

Edited by member 22 May 2020 at 00:45  | Reason: Not specified

 
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