Is there a way of getting around wearing that stupid pump?!?!

2»

Comments

  • abrub
    abrub Member Posts: 2,174 Member
    #22
    westie66 said:

    The dreaded chemo pump
    Hi all: I am wearing mine as we speak. It comes off at 10 am Sunday. Mine does not have a motor - there is some little device on my arm that uptakes the 5FU somehow. I take a long shower before and don't take another one until the pump comes off. I am going to a funeral tomorrow and then a dinner party with the pump on. It causes interesting conversations!
    There may be an IV version available, at least that is the information I was given. I had no choice in the end though.
    Vancouver Cheryl - yes it is interesting how provinces differ in coverage. We hear all the time about BC's wonderful drug coverage - best in Canada. My brother lives in Kelowna. I wonder if each state in the USA has different coverage. Different medical plans sure do. Mine is very good (University of Western Ontario) - good for life - but they don't cover oxaliplatin and definitely not xeloda.
    Cheryl

    The pump is the IV 5FU
    They usually give you a bolus of 5FU after the oxaliplatin, before the pump is hooked up. I was told that 5FU has a very short half-life (active time) of about 10 minutes, so in order to keep it in your system, you need the pump to ensure a "fresh" dose throughout the 46 hours. The side effects last longer, but the drug is only active in your body for a few minutes.

    I know of the electronic pump with the battery and the buzzing every couple of minutes (how I cursed at that noise.) At Memorial Sloan Kettering, they use a compression bottle, which maintains the flow of the 5FU for approximately 46 hours. While the timing on the pump is exact, the timing on the compression bottles can vary by several hours. A friend who had that found that her bottle was empty several hours early on many occasions.

    And yes, while my main care has been at MSK, I did get my Folfox at my home hospital, which is why I had the electronic pump and not the compression bottle.

    Sorry, but there's no way around the pump except the xeloda pills - you need the continuous infusion of the 5FU.

Discussion Boards