Cold season...

Germs!
Can it put the brakes on your chemo? Yep, and put you in the hospital too if it is bad enough. But germs are all around us and we can only do what we can do. Fortunately we become immune to many of them. Don't take any vitamin therapy during chemo your oncologist doesn't okay first. It may stop the chemo from working at all. Overdoing the carrot juice can do the same thing I'm told, so check with the doctor before you do more than make a balanced diet. I don't have chemo but I have lung cancer diagnosed as well as breast cancer, so a cold can put me in the hospital too if it is bad enough. There are things I can do. First thing I do is limit unnecessary exposure. That meant quitting my Sunday School teaching job with the 2's and 3's that have strep germs OUTSIDE my family. I hated not seeing the little ones, but Sunday School with adults has been a good thing too and my incidence of colds went WAY down. One lady I knew avoided the germs with strangers by letting someone else do the candy at the door at Halloween. Sometimes I still get exposed to kids with germs outside my family. I didn't quit my "real" job that is also with children. Hey, someone has to pay the bills or I won't have any medical care at all! But I have kleenix boxes all over the office so they use tissues rather than drip all over me! I wash my hands before I eat and try really hard not to touch my eyes or nose or mouth where most strep germs gain their entry. At home I try to get my son to wash his hands, use kleenix and then toss them in the trash, and eat right so he doesn't get sick as much. I make him get a flu shot as well as me. If he gets sick, I make him sick on the far side of the table. I might empty trash cans more often (washing my hands afterward of course) and wipe down counters in the bathroom and kitchen with a spray or a wipe containing bleach. I change the dishrag a bit more often. I wear rubber gloves when I clean dishes to avoid lymphedema, but I believe that helps when I scrape dirty dishes too and those dirty eating utensils. My nurse at school swears by those antibacterial hand sanitizers. They are a little easier on the skin. Finally, if I do get sick I go to the doctor sooner rather than later. He has to help me hit any illness hard before it gets bad. Cats (we currently have two) can get strep and pass it on to their owners, so they go to the vet if they start sneezing. So far, so good. By the way, be careful with the Lysol around pets and children. The stuff is poisonous to cats if they lick stuff sprayed with it.

I agree with the others, ask
I agree with the others, ask your Dr. or chemo nurses how to stay healthy or what to do if you get sick. Go to Dr. sooner, rather than later. With Dr's. OK, take vitamins and drink juice along with a healthy diet. Get enough rest. Keep things clean, but don't make yourself crazy. I continued working in public school as a Speech Pathologist...up close with small groups of kids. I just made sure we all used hand sanitizer and I used lysol wipes on every surface touched by anyone in my room with a runny nose or cough. I was on one treatment or other the whole school year and I only had to get antibiotics once...didn't miss work at all for being sick, so catching a cold is not inevitable.

Best wishes, seof

CR1954 said:

Well, it's official....
Thank you all. I appreciate your good advice and suggestions, as always!

I have been very, very careful about trying to avoid germs and contact with people who are sick. I wash my hands numerous times a day, carry hand sanitizer with me, have antiacterial wipes in different rooms of the house, as well as in the car. I try to avoid heavily populated and closed in places. I wipe down shopping cart handles. I take a good multi-vitamin, as suggested by the onc. Pretty much covered what I possibly could.

And then my husband came down with his cold....and it's official now. I have been up blowing my nose half of the night. Having a regular old sneeze fest. Ugggghhhhhh!!!!! I have run around behind him since he became sick, spraying everything he touched with Lysol...but I'm afraid that the deed is done. And I am worried.

It has always taken me a long time to get over a cold, as it usually ends up in my chest and I develop a cough that lasts for months. I am afraid of what will happen now. The good news I guess, is that I had a pneumonia shot just last year.

Sheesh! Sabotaged by a bug in my own home!

Now, I am not quite sure what to do. At this point of course, it is merely a head cold.

Again, ugggghhhhh!!!!

CR

Hi CR, you did all you
Hi CR, you did all you could. Now, you need to be careful with a fever. If your temp goes up to 100 you need to call your oncologist. Doesn't matter what time it is. It's hard for us in treatments to fight any type of virus because our white blood cell counts are low, so an ordinary cold might have us developing a fever. The oncologist will then put you on an antibiotic so that it doesn't turn into anything worse. Hope you feel better soon, Hugs, Lili