The key to how well your husband does thru treatments is how well he focuses and meets (hopefully exceeds) his daily minimum for calories and water. Some patients begin to struggle during their first week of rads while others barely notice a scratchy throat until their radiation course is finished and they begin their recovery phase. What your husbands doc said about week 2 or 3 is right about when most OC patients will start noticing changes and the side effects. The patients getting chemo with rads usually have a bit of a harder time.

The 3 "big bag" method of chemo usually hits most patients about a week to 10 days after the dose is given. At that point if you husband gets nausea he can quickly become dehydrated. Remember every single thing that goes out MUST be replaced along with the daily minimums. This usually hits when the doc said, week 2 or 3. AT that point he will need to take anti-nausea meds around the clock even if he begins to feel better. Some patients will also get either constipated or diahreah on top of the nausea which can make the patient feel even worse. Nausea can be very sneaky so watch closely your husband closely to see if he develops any of those side effects!!! You may have already been given a prescription for your husband to get prescription anti-nausea meds. Its a good idea to get that filled now so you have it when he needs it. Hopefully he will not have much nausea but its always smart to be overly prepared (if thats even possible?). I used to take along a bag of all my meds everywhere I went just in case and a few times I had to dig into my stash while away from home. Some patients found either emend, compazine or zofran worked for them in keeping control of the nausea. I had a very bad reaction to compazine ... restless leg syndrome. Id seen those commercials and kinda chuckled to myself thinking no way could that really be a medical condition. Boy did I get a surprise when it happened to me. I just could NOT sit down, it was horrible, like my legs had a mind of their own and they wanted to pace back and forth no matter how the rest of me felt. I was practically sleep walking I was so exhausted from pacing for hours after taking that medicine. My doc switched me to zofran which worked the best for me, in fact I still need to take it even now sometimes.

Did you already call ACS? I wasnt sure if thats what you meant when you said "help was requested". ACS still will have volunteer drivers who can help with transportation. I lived 45 minutes away from my treatment center and the drivers drove at least 45 minutes up to my house, took me 45 minutes down to my treatment, drove me 45 minutes back to my house and another 45 minutes back to their own house. To me that was absolutely amazing how generous it was of the volunteers to help me when I desperately needed it. I suggest getting the paperwork started right away as your husbands doc needs to sign some things and it may take a little until you can get onto the request transportation list. Even if it is only one day a week someone takes him it will help to give you a break. My son was 17 and had the responsibility to drive me back and forth which is alot for a teenager. Being able to give him the day off was such a relief!!! Plus I found talking with the drivers who were cancer patients/survivors and caregivers to be very helpful. The volunteer drivers were all so kind and understanding plus they went thru it themselves and knew how rough it can be. It was nice to go by myself and talk to people I didnt know but still had a common bond so it was almost like finding out a stranger is really an extended family member.

Hang in there!!! We will help get you both thru everything.