Help tell me what to expect! ....Chemoradiation

Remeber that everyone is different. I had a positive experience with the Xeloda and the radiation. I was able to work the entire time. I scheduled my treatments before work. I made it through without any radaition burns. I had a break of 6 weeks, then had the resection. I was out of the office for about 7 weeks, but after 2 weeks I was able to work from home ( I was lucky to have a job that I could do this)

Good Luck
I didn't notice much in the beginning, except that I did have occasional nausea and I promptly took anti-nausea medicine for that. No diarrhea but occasional urinary urgency. About half way through, I did experience some fatigue though that may have been attributed to some emotional stress too at the time. I had severe radiation burns by week 3 or 4. I did work during this time but I reduced my workday to 6-hour days and went for radiation treatment right after work. My job is pretty physical and I am able to stand a lot, which worked out well for me because it was difficult to sit with the burns. There are some ointments that are protective, like Aquaphor and Silvadene. Also, I used the softest toilet paper, like Charmin and/or baby wipes without fragrance. I had very mild peeling of my fingertips towards the end of treatment.
All of my symptoms went away soon after treatment except for the skin irritation from the radiation. That went on for about a week or 2, which my radiation nurse warned me about.

If you do experience any nausea or burns, just remember that it's temporary and that this is all part of treatment to get rid of the cancer. With your user name "Dean22" I assume you are a man? (There are other things to know about radiation treatment if you are a woman.)

Good luck and take one day at a time.
~Aud

my experience
As others have said, there is a lot of individual variation. I hope you are at the mildest end of the spectrum!

I continued working throughout, but I have a fairly flexible job.

Radiation: Typically, the radiation doesn't kick in until after about 2 weeks (but then it can last 2 weeks after the radiation finishes!). I tried to work in a short nap each day....I had fairly bad diarrhea, and also some radiation burn around my 'nether regions'. This made defecation (pardon for frankness) very painful, I am sorry to say. Talk to your doctor, nurses, radiation guys about what creams you can and cannot use.

Chemo: I've had very good experience with Xeloda -- very mild nausea, very mild fatigue.

Good luck!

Tara

Dean22 said:

Thanks Everyone-- I hope to
Thanks Everyone-- I hope to be like the lucky responder who had very limited side effects although I appreciate the frankness of others sharing what they encountered. That will help me to be aware of what could happen from some with firsthand experience. I took my first Xeloda today and my treatment is at 3:15 this afternoon. Thank you.

My husband could work on
My husband could work on site to visit his customers because he is an engineer.He had a chemo pump with him.I think you will probaly do fine since you work in an office.He did have side effects like fatigue,rear end pain from radiation and a little nausea,but overall it wasn't too bad.Everytime when he had side effects,the radiation oncologist and chemo oncologist would have some idea to help him.

Please listen to your body,if you don't feel good enough,please take a break,please don't exert yourself.Hope you can finish the preoperative treatments smoothly and have a great result from it.Best luck and best wishes to you.Take care.

I'm going to go with khl8's
I'm going to go with khl8's first sentence....remember that everyone is different I had chemo/radiation (my chemo was the 24/hr pump), and from my experience through many others posting in here they were severe to totally tolerable. Keep your life as normal as possible for as long as you can. I worked for about 2 1/2 weeks then it got tough.

Best of luck to you...stay optimistic and keep us posted. We will be here for you!

Hugs, Gail