Chemo and Radiation next week- Any adivice?

emasters
emasters Member Posts: 4
edited March 2014 in Esophageal Cancer #1
My husband starts chemo and radiation next week. Is there anything we should know. How to prepare and side effects. Whats worse, chemo or rad? He is getting 5-Fu for 5 days and on the 7th day he'll get cisplatin and doing the same in 6 weeks. Rad will be everyday for 6 weeks.

Comments

  • Betty in Vegas
    Betty in Vegas Member Posts: 290 Member
    #2
    everyone is so different
    For Layne, he would be nauseated a bit, but not terribly, on his induction chemo. On his chemo/rad, he was tired, and near the end --2 weeks after it ending actually, his throat was sore. Other than that...he really had zero symptoms and he didn't have a feeding tube.

    Everyone is so different. The chemo is different, the person is different, the state of each person's health is so different. However, we found that just by not assuming it would be terrible, that Layne would have zero symptoms, he had fewer than most folks we knew. Our first chemo nurse said "If you make up in your head you will get sick, then you will. You will get terribly nauseated. Just take it as it comes."

    Worked well for us.
  • emasters
    emasters Member Posts: 4
    #3
    Betty in Vegas said:

    everyone is so different
    For Layne, he would be nauseated a bit, but not terribly, on his induction chemo. On his chemo/rad, he was tired, and near the end --2 weeks after it ending actually, his throat was sore. Other than that...he really had zero symptoms and he didn't have a feeding tube.

    Everyone is so different. The chemo is different, the person is different, the state of each person's health is so different. However, we found that just by not assuming it would be terrible, that Layne would have zero symptoms, he had fewer than most folks we knew. Our first chemo nurse said "If you make up in your head you will get sick, then you will. You will get terribly nauseated. Just take it as it comes."

    Worked well for us.

    Thank you for your comment/
    Thank you for your comment/ response. All this is so foreign to us. It seems I get better answers from people than doctors or nurses. All their answers are text book answers and we end up at the same place we started.

    Dan was admitted today and starts treatment in about an hour. I am praying everything goes well.

    Elsy
  • Betty in Vegas
    Betty in Vegas Member Posts: 290 Member
    #4
    emasters said:

    Thank you for your comment/
    Thank you for your comment/ response. All this is so foreign to us. It seems I get better answers from people than doctors or nurses. All their answers are text book answers and we end up at the same place we started.

    Dan was admitted today and starts treatment in about an hour. I am praying everything goes well.

    Elsy

    Yes, we got better info from people sometimes too!
    Though once we got to md anderson, they are very BIG on information and they fill you in so well, it was still nice to hear from people who went through this ....and get their insights!

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