How did you feel a month after chemo?

ketziah35

Did you still feel the effects of chemo 2 weeks to a month after chemo? What did you feell physicaly?

dianetavegia

Yes
About a month after chemo ended, my neuropathy worsened but then leveled off. It can take a year for energy to return but in some people they never are fully back to their pre chemo selves. I completed chemo almost 1 year ago and my fingertips are still 'tingly' and my feet still have quite a bit of neuropathy. I still trip once in a while. :-D

just4Brooks

7 months after
It's now been 7 months sence my last chemo treatment of Oxy and 5 FU (and some other crap). I still get worn down at the end of the day. Feet still numb. Legs hurt at night and if I sit for more the 20 mins I feel like I'm 80 when I stand up because legs and hips are stiff but after a min I'm good to go. If a bear ever came after me when I was sitting down I'd be lunch. LOL But life is good. I get to hug my wife and kids today and see what the world has to offer.

Brooks

pluckey

I finished chemo mid-june.
I finished chemo mid-june. Taste buds returned (acidic foods no longer hurt), energy increasing..no naps during the day, but I retire fairly early...face clearing up finally from the Erbitux.....i feel great!

p.s. I was on 5FU, erbitux, ironatecean since April 2009...

Peggy

Kerry S

bubble off dead center normally
I think that everyone is going to react differently from chemo. I had chemo 5fu/rad. I had nerve damage to my legs from it. It took 1.5 years to get back to my normal.

Exercise did the most for me, but it does get better by the day. Even the nerve damage has gone away. My body might be old, but it is still damn good at rebuilding. That chemo/rad crap beat the hell out of me.

My only problem now is pure mental. Yeah, old positive minded me is going thru something strange in the head. One must temper this with the concept that I am a bubble off dead center normally. From what I have read lately on the board, there are a lot of us shell shocked cancer warriors out there. Maybe it is just a “group psychosis” thing.

Kerry

Left Coaster

Finished chemo 6/14
I am a month and a half out of 12 cycles of FolFiri with Avastin. I have had FolFox prior and developed the neuropathy, hand and foot, mouth sores, mucositis and sensitivity to cold. My hand and foot has resolved quite considerably. This is with the regiment of using a lot of lotion at night and wearing gloves and socks to bed. During the day I would apply lotion and then immediately wash my hands. I am a bit obsessive about my hands, don't like them dirty or greasy with lotion. I have tried utter cream all different kinds of lotion, none of them worked any better than the other, just the fact that I was applying something to combat the drying, redness, sore cracking. The mouth sores are gone, went away within a wekk after chemo, the mucositis went away, took about a week and a half two weeks to resolve. The FolFiri didn't cause me cold sensitivity but did knock down my stamina, which I am improving on every day. I am back in the pool, back riding my bike and look to start back playing tennis soon as well. I still trip a bit too with the neuropathy in my feet but I always tend to push myself physically to overcome obstacles so I go out looking for them. Now if my eyelashes and eyebrows would just hurry up and grow back I would be back to my recognizable self, almost!

coloCan

Left Coaster said:

Finished chemo 6/14
I am a month and a half out of 12 cycles of FolFiri with Avastin. I have had FolFox prior and developed the neuropathy, hand and foot, mouth sores, mucositis and sensitivity to cold. My hand and foot has resolved quite considerably. This is with the regiment of using a lot of lotion at night and wearing gloves and socks to bed. During the day I would apply lotion and then immediately wash my hands. I am a bit obsessive about my hands, don't like them dirty or greasy with lotion. I have tried utter cream all different kinds of lotion, none of them worked any better than the other, just the fact that I was applying something to combat the drying, redness, sore cracking. The mouth sores are gone, went away within a wekk after chemo, the mucositis went away, took about a week and a half two weeks to resolve. The FolFiri didn't cause me cold sensitivity but did knock down my stamina, which I am improving on every day. I am back in the pool, back riding my bike and look to start back playing tennis soon as well. I still trip a bit too with the neuropathy in my feet but I always tend to push myself physically to overcome obstacles so I go out looking for them. Now if my eyelashes and eyebrows would just hurry up and grow back I would be back to my recognizable self, almost!

Much better than I did the month before,and a bit better just
about every day thereafter, with a few setbacks here and there but if there's one step backwards, there's always two steps forward soon after. I know I;'ll never be as I was but I'm a hellofalot better than I ever thought I'd be when at my worst and couldn't think more than two seconds into the future.....

Three months since postop chemo ended and I'm only 10 pounds off original weight,working out with dumbbells (no, not the living ones, the inanimate metal ones),walking every day too,eating/drinking healthier than ever before, tingling and numbness in toes and feet bottoms still there but as calluses are starting to bother me,neuroapathy must be subsiding;still get mouth sores so still swish the stuff that starts with "N"; still need to see urologist (one of these days);mind functioning better but still clouded now and then with chemobrain; need eyes/ears examined; random pains here and there with shooting microsecond-long stabbing pain at times in surgical area.

But all in all, I never thought I'd see this day and am glad to be alive. Whatever effects from chemo/rad/surgery that remain I can live with; I couldn;t live with what was removed....It does get better with time if you've learnt from your past and do what you can to help yourself heal......steve

Ap pear ently (more appropriate would be apineapplee) I'm still butteryfingered too as I just dropped an opened container of fresh pineapple slices that looked sooooo good but fell all over the floor .....$%&@*^&*#!!!!!!!

herdizziness

chemo effects
I'm not sure if I'm the exception, tomorrow I go in for my eighth round of chemo. Oxiplatinin and Xeloda (pills for 2 weeks). Within a day after chemo now, I feel fine with the exception of the fingers and toes when they get cold, they hurt, this lasts for about two weeks. The third week I can swim in cool water, grab cans of iced cola, etc.
Each time, the chemo has gotten easier. The first time I was in bed for three days, felt like hell. The next chemo was in bed for two days. The third round didn't need bed, came home and did laundry. And it's remained that way since. Each chemo, my body feels better. The cumulative effects they've talked about hasn't happened to me. I had Avastin as well during 6 of those chemo rounds, am off it now due to possible surgery. the Avastin didn't add any symptoms to me.
I never suffered mouth sores, my hands and feet have never peeled or cracked. But, then I've been careful with them. Wear tennis shoes for the first week, barefoot the next week, and back into my cute little sandals the third week. And I don't grab the steering wheel with my fingers, just the palm of my hands for the first two weeks.
I started chemo weighing 158 lbs. After 8 rounds of chemo, I weigh 158 lbs.
The first couple of rounds I did feel nausea, but would eat a couple of "special brownies" (I'm in California it's legal) and they worked great for me. Haven't needed any since the third round though, nausea left me.
So I'm guessing in the long run, I'm saying within two week of chemo, you can feel great,
or not. Each person responds differently. But it isn't necessarily all bad, as in my case. May you be the exception.

zenmonk

try 7 months
7 months post chemo and I still feel like S***. Depends on the inividual and type of chemo.

daydreamer110761

zenmonk said:

try 7 months
7 months post chemo and I still feel like S***. Depends on the inividual and type of chemo.

14 months here
and still annoyed. I was on the folfox regimine, and each month seemed to get better for awhile there, all except for my feet. I still get tired easy, but not as bad as before, the hands aren't so bad unless i hold on to ice or a cold can for too long. my eyes still hurt if I cry (weird I know), which by the way has made it hard for me to log on here lately. I have had two colonoscopies since I finished chemo, both turning up positive polyps, and I get to have another in September, not sure what they will do if I get a third positive one, but the doc seemed surprised that they were not only positive, but spread all through my colon....glad to be alive and still able to hug my guy tho....

HollyID

I've heard
it can take up to a year for a person to really feel like themselves again. I finished chemo the end part of June and I feel pretty darn good. Still a little fatigued, but that's about it. I do still some pain/tingling in my fingertips. Sometimes, my toes hurt like no other. All in all, that's OK. I'm still alive and I'm doing well. That is much better than the alternative.

Love and Hugs,

Holly

Nana b

HollyID said:

I've heard
it can take up to a year for a person to really feel like themselves again. I finished chemo the end part of June and I feel pretty darn good. Still a little fatigued, but that's about it. I do still some pain/tingling in my fingertips. Sometimes, my toes hurt like no other. All in all, that's OK. I'm still alive and I'm doing well. That is much better than the alternative.

Love and Hugs,

Holly

Yep!
Yes, I was not my active self, still tired, still ached, still had sleepless nights, but I just gave in to my body's needs. I canned tomatoes yesterday and by the end of the day, I couldn't stand any longer! But I feel great most days, may tire after a hard day, but I go into the extra bedroom, turn on the window AC, that I put there just for me, slip in to my 600 count sheets and comforter and wake up when my body wants to. Did that last night, woke up, took the day easy, showered then dressed to impress (me--nice and comfy beach pants), and now going to Mom's for dinner!

You will get there, just feed your body what it needs, get some sleep, and do some walking..

Kathryn_in_MN

Slowly better
Compared to how I felt during chemo, once I got a few weeks out from my final tx, I slowly felt better. I did have a set-back when I got an infection when my port was removed.

My neuropathy did worsen for the first couple months. Then it stabilized. I am over 3 months out now, and my neuropathy in my hands is finally getting a little better. I have hope for them to clear. My feet are still bad. I still have a sore tongue - on the sides it hurts most of the time. Weird. I've always had a bit of tinitus, but now it is really bad most of the time.

It is an adjustment needing so much sleep. I always ran on 4-6 hours per night, but now need 8-10. I don't have the energy I used to, but I can do most things if I push myself. I'm hoping to have my energy back at some point, and for the neuropathy to go away. But if it doesn't, I'd rather be alive with a little fatigue and neuropathy than dead!

Don't be disappointed if it takes a while till you start feeling closer to normal. It does for most people.