I agree with the planning ahead as much as possible. Like Brainstorker, I had done a lot of reding on this board so I knew soomewhat what I woudl be facing and tried to plan ahead as much as possible. here are some things I did

1. Created a medication/symptom log sheet in WORD, one per day, printed out 50 of them, three hole punched them and put them in a notebook binder. I figured with the meds I might be getting this was a palce to keep track of what I was taking and when I took it (I'm terrible abotu rememebring if I took a pill or not and when it gets to about 8 different meds it is really handy to have a written log. I alos wrot in this any new symptoms so I could recall when they started when talkinbg to a doc later. I'm still using these.

2. In the same notebook, I had some pockets that had articles I had printed out reviewing methods of treatment of mucostisis, etc. Any info. I thought might come in handy to ask about wne in there. I ahd one pocket just for the prescrption drug printout of info. that comes with each prescript. (with the info. about side effects,e tc.) When I was at my most out of it, my husband kept track of things in this notebook.

3. I also stocked up on some of the over-the-counter things that people recommended here: gauze pads (small ones for putting in your mouth to help soak up mouth giunk), Puffs Plus tissues (buy lots of these), tussin cough syrup with guiafenesin (helps break down mucous when used through the tube), baby toothbrushes, biotene products and foods that were easy to eat (cream soups, fruit in syrups, applesauce, small containers of soy milk). I had my chemo from noon to late afternoon and so needed lunch during that time--I got small packs of canned fruit and soy milk and other things that were easy to eat/drink that could be carried to the cehmo easily.

4. I also made a list of phone numbers of everyone who offered some type of assistance during radiation and wrote next to each name and number what they could offer and when they had time to help. This came in really handy when my husband had a work commitment that required he be away every evening for 6 days during my final week of radiation--without much help from me, he called my friends and got people to come stay with me during thise evenings.

5. I had already handed over most of the my work to other folks but I was teaching an online course still just to have some toehold of normalcy while I went through treatment and before rad I made sure I had a colleague trained to take that over in a pinch, although I ended up finishing it myself it was good to know if I got really out of it, there was someone else who could pick it up.

6. Most of this is actually what other people have said, I guess. The last one is one that maybe only I did. I was afraid I would get depressed and maybe discouraged during treatment so I wrote a list of things I loved about my life (my pre-cancer life) that made fighting for my life worth the pain and effort. And I wrote myself little notes of encouragement. It turned out I didn't go back to those too much during treatment, but it was like the act of doing it helped me get strng in terms of not being easily discouraged (well, until after rad. was over at least--I have to admit I've gotten discouraged about the time it takes to heal!).

7. In retrospect, before rad. started I would have hired someone to come in and clean. My husband kept saying he would call people during treatemnt but kept "forgetting" and so we have just had a dirtier than usual house for the last several months (today is actually a big housecleaning day for me since my brother is coming to visit starting tommorrow and I've realized in the last few days exaclty how bad things are--especially things like dusting which my hiusband just doesn't ever do!) I would also have hired someone to help with garden care. If you are one who weeds in your family, be aware that you really shouldn't be doing that during chemo and that those weeds get out of control fast when no one does it!