Oh Laurie. Its like a veteran looking back on a recruit! I have the smiling selfie I took the first time they strapped on the Cisplatin. I had no idea. I started at the same time as Hellion. We're coming to the end of week 6, I'll share a few important points from my experience.

When people tell you what to expect, words like nausea and constipation are just words. You look back on a time in your life when you were nauseous, you're thinking seasickness, maybe a hangover. Nothing prepares you for 8-9 days straight of it. But it won't kill you. As long as you can medicate yourself orally, and get enough food and water down, the unpleasantness will pass. It doesn't feel that way but it does.

Constipation can be a very serious problem. The change in diet and the painkillers meant I didn't poo for 7 days. It backed up so far it made me nauseous to the point I couldn't medicate or hydrate orally anymore and had to be admitted to hospital for 4 of the worst days of my life. I seriously wanted to die. When the doc says take Movicol, take Movicol (or whatever it is called there) no matter how vile it is or how nauseous you are.

Other strange things will be happening to your body that your previous bodily experiences won't prepare you for. Keep ahead of the game with oral hygiene, mouth washes 4-6 times a day and sorbolene on your neck 4-6 times a day now, not when you start noticing it go red. I can thank my wife for rousing me into doing those, I'm doing ok with those now. Keep ahead of the pain relief, being a Doctor you'll understand titration a lot better than most.

I take on board what Paul and Christine are saying about the PEG wars. When I was hospitalised with constipation and lost 15lbs in a week, I thought a PEG was inevitable. I spoke to the Doctor this week and he said no. A PEG is a whole different level of care and attention you want to avoid if you can. He said hold on to normal as long as you can. The longer you can maintain normal swallowing and normal food the shorter your recovery will be. But the bottom line is you must get the calories down somehow. Your situation is a bit different because you have had surgery, I don't know how that affects your swallowing.

Cisplatin causes tinnitus and can lead to permanent hearing loss. If you have any tinnitus be sure to mention it to your Oncologist before you get your next dose. Hellion was taken off Cisplatin because of it, mine noted it but didn't consider it serious enough to stop the last Cisplatin hit next week.

Every cancer journey is different. Hellion and I, same age same cancer starting the same treatment at the same time have had very different experiences. We've both had some very tough roads and we may not have seen the worst of it yet, but we are getting there and we will beat this.