Mike's first induction chemo was done on Thursday, Jan 28th. He spent all day at the CCC. First they gave him iv fluids for 3 hours, an iv anti-nausea med and a steroid, then taxophere, then cisplatin, then 3 more hours of fluids and hooked him up to a cartridge with 5fu in it. This had a fanny pack type bag he carried around all weekend. It ran for 96 hours, and then he returned it to the CCC.
He went to work on Friday, but starting on Saturday he got really tired, and didn't return to work until the following Thursday. He developed a couple of mouth sores, a few sores on his face/neck, indigestion, and thrush. The thrush was in the form of white patch in his mouth and red raised patches in his armpits. Two more prescriptions for the thrush and indigestion and he feels pretty normal now, although he did suddenly get weak and tired yesterday.
Some things tasted terrible, and he couldn't eat sweet stuff for about a week because it hurt his mouth. He continued to drink a lot. I mixed up some baking soda/salt water for gargling and that seemed to help some.

One "funny" side effect he got that he still has is what we call his "crop circles". On the side of his abdomen he has 3 perfectly round red circles about the size of a silver dollar. They don't itch, and are slightly raised but almost look like he laid on something and it left an imprint. When he went in for his blood work, which was all good last Thursday - they pulled everyone in to look at them and nobody has ever seen anything like it. Anyone else have any strange things like this?

He gets his second IC on the 18th - then fitted with the mask for radiation on the 23rd. Then he will start radiation and either 1x week or 3 doses of cisplatin around the 8th of March.

For anyone who has gone through similar treatment, was the second IC therapy worse, or did you have about the same reactions as the first round? I know everyone is different but he feels like he really didn't handle the first round well (he says some of the posts here made it sound like the ic didn't affect them, but I told him that may be compared to what is coming with the combined rad/chemo).

Just wanted to look for suggestions to try and make this second round better, and share with others who may be getting ready to go through IC.

Blessings,
Shelly

Hi Shelly. The IC treatments are cumulative and the effects get progressively worse. That being said, the side effects that got worse for me was the fatigue and dehydration. My nausea was very well controlled and I had no trouble eating.

The important thing is to communicate with the chemo nurses so they can adjust and add as necessary.


Kevin

Hydration, hydration, hydration. Keep flushing those chemicals out of his body.

i agree with the above comments. andy went thru 3 rounds of chemo, took home a "baby". each round was harder especially with fatigue. he never lost his appetite though...ate like a horse.
he did develope a "metalic" taste in his mouth. the MO suggested using plastic silverware, this seemed to help a little.
he stopped working during his second round due to the fatigue. couldnt keep up with his demanding 65+ hr/wk job.
never heard of the crop circles...lol!
but the fatigue during chemo is NOTHING compared to rad/chemo.

Teresa,

I almost forgot about the plastic silverware. I had the same thing with the metal taste. I raided the picnic basket.

Shelly

I also got funny rashes away from the Ethyol injection site. They shot the Ethyol in the abdomen, arms and thighs but I would get these funny circular red spots just above my hip about where the Kidney's are. My Nurse called the RO over to look. They both wondered what the heck that was and the RO said to keep an eye on them, they stayed around for most of my treatment but never got bigger, Faded away at times, and did not bother me. We never did figure them out.

Kelly

I saw a movie once about those crop circles....SIGNS w/ Mel Gibson, maybe there's a connection?

Shelly,

Mike's regimen sounds like it's just like mine was. I guess I'm a little out of the ordinary - for me, it felt like the first round of Induction chemo was the worst. I developed a couple of side effects I wasn't prepared for (one was PAIN that started in my chest, then slowly moved down my GI tract - thought it might be a heart attack at first). A Prilosec/Previcid drug was prescribed (I didn't feel like it did a lot, but it did help). The GI pain stopped at the end of round 1, and didn't return - (I stopped taking the drug for that).

Mouth sores were more mild in round 1, but I think that's all that was easier for me.

Oh - no "crop circles" that I know of.

Keep trooping,

- Pam

Just remember , this all could be worse, mouth sores and all.I'm past 2 years since the rad seed implants and my mouth has never quit hurting at all. In fact I have to force food because of mouth , neck and throat pain right now. I am forcing maybe too much food, but just incase it is something else, I want some weight that I can afford to lose. But I go on smiling and say I feel great for my family and friends.

Thanks to everyone for your replies - I will have to get out some plastic ware for this next round and see if it helps. His crop circles are not due to Ethyol injections because he is not getting those, so we will have to see if they get worse after this next round or stay the same.

David - I know I saw that movie "Signs" but can't remember much about it or the ending - have been thinking about signing up for netflixs so might have to put that one on our wish list. The plot says: "A family living on a farm finds mysterious crop circles in their fields which suggests something more frightening to come." I am afraid the something more frightening to come is rad/chemo, but thanks to you all we are more educated and at least have a small clue, although I do not thing anyone can be "ready" for it.

EZJim - Your sense of humor on these boards make me laugh often. I don't think that I would be able to be as strong as you are - you are an inspiration and I pray things get better for you.

Blessings,
Shelly

Thank you Shelly for the boost. I need to be given an ego shot once in awhile such as now.