First Day of Chemo/Rads today!

Rock on!! Whatever helps him
Rock on!! Whatever helps him fight the beast, go fot it. Good luck with your treatments. I am a caregiver and it gets tough at times, but we all made it and so will you..

have an uneventful day
here's hoping the machine don't break and you get through a very long day without much drama. It will be an eye opener for you. My very best advice is to choose a recliner as close to the bathroom as possible. My next advice is to bring a good book for the chemo portion. I started using books on tape from the library for this.

The last 5 Rads are a big deal as they typically change the radiation field for those and try and hit possible spread sites. They are generally less intense in duration.

Thoughts and Prayers
Coming your way....

Just my opinion, but I would much rather have had the Chemo first and Rads after like I did, but that's just me and the way it went. It might be better the other way around.

I had the very long chemo days when I was doing the nine week (three week cycles). For the concurrent I was having weekly chemo on Mondays, about 2 - 3 hours, then the 15 - 20 minute rads sessions after and the remaining four days of the week.

As for the number of sessions, it seems that 35 is the number that the majority of us had/have.

I know it's late now, but bring some food for both you and him...it helps a lot to have something to snack on. Especially when the pro's (other patients that have been there longer) bring out their lunches....I felt I was starving that first day smelling all of the good eats from everyone else.

I think we resorted to some tuna salad and crackers from the snack machine...

BTW the male bonding between he and your brother is a very good thing....sometimes we guys can let go and be more at ease when we are smokin and jokin with another guy. It's good for him to have a bud to just b.i.t.c.h with and let it fly a little....

Best,
John

First Day
Everyone is so right on this, especially John. The chemo time is long and boring. I too did not bring lunch the first time, but my wife went out and brought us bacl some burgers. That got to be a good thing for us both so we continued to have her go get lunch on the long chemo days.

My RO told me 30 as well and then changed it to 35. Oh well it is what it is and he will find a way to get through it.

Good luck and God bless. We will certainly pray for the best.

Fern
If he has any problems with the rad sessions- a number of us have used Xanax to help us thru it. A 1/2-tab for me about 30-minutes before the session did help a lot.

I was scheduled for 35, also, but was too sick for rads in weeks #5&6, and ended-up only getting 31 full H&N (20 places/session), with the last 3 only being zapped in 5 places. Have heard of others who also ended-up getting fewer than originally scheduled, so you might wanna pass that on to him.

Good luck, and keep us informed. We are all here to help.

kcass

A BIG HURDLE HE WILL CLEAR
Best of luck, and tell him he will come out the other end just fine. I too fought off the PEG for a while, but did end up needing it. It is OK to "surrender to the PEG" as it is there to support good hydration and nutrition.

Keep us posted.

Best!!

Mike

Hi Fern
Hope day 3 went well, tell him he got a thumbs up for choosing Zevon.

Consider the PEG just another tool in the toolkit for getting through treatment. It's not a sign of weakness or failure AT ALL, it's simply a way to assure sound nutrition if swallowing becomes untenable. Radiation's effects are cumulative and I hope he's open to all the tools available to him to get through successfully.

Skiffin16 said:

DITTO
You do what you have to do to get through........if plan A isn't working move on to plan B.....

Fight dirty, after all you're fighting to win...you do what you have to do to win.

Best,
John

fight
I think any way we fight is justified, after all it is our fight.

Linda

Hi Fern
How was the first day, hope it was not too hard on the husband, after a while it will become normal everyday stuff

Hondo