My Story - Part 2

Chemotherapy

6th September 2019 was when I started. They accidentally booked me in two days sooner which was when Max was starting nursery so because of the last minute change I had to go to Merthyr for my first session of FEC-T chemo. The plan was to have 3 sessions of FEC every 3 weeks, then a progress scan and then on to 3 sessions of the T (Docetaxel) every 3 weeks.

During my first session, my hand started to sting towards the end of the one drug, Epirubicin, and my hand began to go red and swell slightly. I was sent to Morriston Hospital in Swansea where I had an extravasation - it wasn't pleasant and it all turned in to a 12 hour day.

As you can imagine, that scared me that it was going to happen again, and also limited points of entry for my cannula in the coming sessions. Frequent needles were all new to me at this stage and I have never been a fan of them, so I was not happy about losing an option.

With that said, the remaining 4 out of 5 sessions went without a hitch. The final one was delayed due to a chest infection and I wasn't considered well enough to have it. My last day of intravenous chemotherapy was December 27th.

Side Effects

Oh now this is the fun part! There's always a massive list which they have to inform you as a precaution. The most common side effects are fatigue, nausea, sickness, diarrhoea, constipation, joint pain, hair loss and a very low immune system.

I experienced most of the above except for the constipation and the sickness, although the nausea was unbearable as nothing could shift it and was a real soul sucker in regards to moods and mental health.

After the first cycle I was put on to anti-depressants just to help get me through the treatment. In between the first two cycles I just cried all of the time because I wasn't well enough to do the things that I used to do. I missed my children. I couldn't take care of them.

Because of the low immune system and the time of year, even after the initial week and the side effects passing until the next session, I still managed to pick up some sort of cough or cold. I had a sickness bug half way through chemo which put me in hospital for fluids while I was on holiday. It all went down hill from there with persistent chest infections. Clarithromycin and Doxycycline became my friends.