Folfiri

Shayenne said:

Hello Melody!
You have such a pretty name

I am on my 17th or 18th? (I lost count somewhere) of the Folfiri and Avastin, been on it since Feb of this year, and it has shrunk my tumors, but not enough to become operable still, I guess maybe the tumors are in places that are hard to get too, but hopefully we the avastin will keep them at bay and die off.

I will say the 1st treatment was my worse, because I didn't know what to do, or what to expect, it wasn't bad getting the infusion itself, it was when I got home! Will you be on the 46 hour pump as well? if so, the day after you are disconnected, was the worse for me..it hit me hard, I couldn't move, drink anything or eat anything, I felt sooo sick, I didn't puke, but the nausea was overwhelming, and I was so tired! I thought if this cancer don't kill me, the chemo sure will, and scared at the thought of being like this every other week! Well, when the chemo nurse called me to check up on me for the first tx, I told her how I was, and she said I would never feel like that again...

So the second time I went, and this is when they started me on Emend, and Dexamethasone,
along with the Zofran, Compazine and Ativan that I had, and it was awesome! I haven't felt that sick since. It's a 3 day set of pills you take after you eaten something, and then takes an hour to kick in, but it helped me alot, so if you have some nausea, that's the best thing I took, along with a couple hits of maryjane

I never lost ALL my hair, I had alot of hair thinning. I was losing clumps of hair in the shower, my onc said I wouldn't go bald, and I didn't, my scalp feels alot cooler without all that hair I had, but it is growing back now, on my expressions page, probably the second page of it, you will see a recent pic, and how my hair is now, I had it cut up to my shoulders because my hair was very long, and thick, and the weight may have also made it fall out more as well.

Drink alot of fluids, stay hydrated! keep on top of the nausea pills every few hours, even if you don't feel sick, take it, or you will get sick, then it's too late to do anything about it. Saltines, soup, jello, popsicles, are all foods I ate when I wasn't really hungry, but had to get something down in me, and they didn't upset my stomach more..toast too!

You may leak alot from the eyes, and runny nose, I feel like I yawn ALOT more now then ever! I don't know why, but even when I'm not tired, I'm yawning! LOL...

You will feel alot of the fatigue after disconnection, maybe a day or two later, where you are too tired to do anything, and that's ok! just rest, and don't push yourself, you may feel like that for about 3-4 days till you start bouncing back to feeling like yourself, and you will bounce back.. you'll feel like you got run over by a truck, but that's normal, and you'll feel fine a few days later

I probably forgot alot of things (chemo brain) but hope some of this helps you, anything you need to ask, just post away! We're here for you, and know what you're going through, I wish you luck, and you'll be in my prayers, if I can do it, you sure as heck can

Hugsss!
~Donna