I asked Barry and he said that well-administered, the injection site does not burn. It was painful once when another nurse gave him the jabs but that was like the sore shoulder you get after a flu shot (there was actually a bruise on one side) not burning. Our RO nurse was great, she had a very careful touch. Barry got the shot a few times in his stomach area when his arms were bruised.

He only threw up a couple of times and that's how we realized that days post-chemotherapy (he got carboplatin on Wednesdays) there was lingering nausea, especially on Friday when the 24-hour Anzemet he received with the chemo had worn off (he would get it at 2 pm Wednesday and get the Ethyol at 10:30 the next day) so Thursdays were usually OK but Fridays he had to be very careful about what he ate or drank. He tried Anzemet on Fridays and it worked better but he was still sick a few times. He told himself -- "this will pass in an hour or so, but dry mouth could be with me for a long time" -- that's how he psyched himself to drink the water and take the shot virtually every day.

He was still the Hopkins "Ethyol poster boy" apparently, no one else had tolerated it so well -- they gave him a Ethyol tote bag and drinking bottle (!) when he finished.

The mask can be claustrophobic -- Barry is also slighly so, the first few times he took Ativan (an anti-anxiety drug) and also, they played CDs for him during the treatment. He brought classical "blood and guts" music so as not to fall asleep -- thinking that if he did and woke up, for a second not knowing where he was, he would absolutely panic. Happily this never happened and after about a week he stopped the Ativan, and just laid there with his eyes closed concentrating on the music and keeping his tongue still!

Best wishes,
Gail