Sorry, Eric. I should have said that my hearing is quite normal, despite some loud concerts in my youth. The extreme changes tapered off to nothing in about a week or 10 days. The value of this forum is that I mentioned this to another member, just as an aside, and she knew what it meant, thus saving my hearing! Later I asked my regular oncologist, who is young, about it. He had never heard of that side effect. Because I am one of the luckiest persons I know, on the day I showed up for Cisplatin No. 3, the young doc was gone someplace and his replacement was an older doc who knew what was what. To be specific, the change was that ordinary noise, like crumbling paper, was exquisitely painful to me, as were most voices. I wore ear plugs for a week. The older doc said he had one patient like that a long time ago, who did end up deaf as a post because nobody knew what that change meant. About nausea, I didn't experience any, but I checked my journal and in it I complained that the drugs given me to prevent it made me really, really spaced out for a couple of days. In retrospect, I think I would rather have thrown up and remained clear headed. Go for the chemo! However it works out, it is just a short period in your life. Lots of us, some strong and stubborn and some scared, have all come though and you will too. I remember that in the infusion center, there must be 50 beds, and I was always embarrassed to feel so good when everyone around me looked terribly, terribly ill. Chemo is, in my opinion, more of a nuisance because it takes so much time, than the rigors of rad, with which you are familiar. You can, and should, do this, Eric.
Joanna, who is SO good at telling everyone else what to do (grin)

Hey Eric,
My hubby had 7 chemo treatments on each Monday during his radiation. He had Cisplatin and Taxol. It thinned his hair, but no real hair loss. He had problems with acid reflux and some major constipation in the beginning, all of which got under control with different meds. He was fine on Monday and Tuesday, but he got weaker and more tired Wed.-Fri. He got better over the weekend in time to start it all over again. However, the chemo seemed like a walk in the park compared to the radiation (he wasn't able to have IMRT).

Take care and God bless,
Debbie

Eric,

My mom was scheduled for 6 chemo treatments the same as yours but after the second treatment she broke out in a rash that covered her entire body. She doesn't do well with medication and is allergic to some medications as well. After her second treatment they stopped the chemo because they did not want her reactions to get worse. She experienced a lot of naseua but she had a harder time with the radiation. Since they say that the chemo enhances the radiation the doctors felt that the radiation was doing what is was supposed to do and they stopped he chemo treatments.

Glad to hear you are so positive even though you already know what you are about to endure with another round of radiation. My prayers and thoughts are with you and your family and as my mom's ENT says "Your swinging a huge bat at the cancer" this time!

Take Care,
Dani

I was given Cisplatin. 1st round was easy. I got sick the next day after breakfast & that was it. 2nd round left me very nauseous for days, lost my voice, and sensitive to smells. I think my bad reaction was the nurse

That last sentence was well-put... trust me, I'm a writer -- I know good writing when I see it... lol

Hello all,

My father is receiving cisplatin and radiation as well. From reading through
this forum, seems like people have received cisplatin at different intervals, some every 21 days, my father is receiving it once a week and at first they were going to give it to him 3 times a week. Does anyone know why there is such a discrepancy in how often it is given? I understand it probably has to do with each individual case, but if anyone knows if one interval is more effective then the other, I would really appreciate the help. Also, I was reading a few studies done on the effectiveness of radiation and cisplatin and one stated that it is more effective if cisplatin is administered 3 hours after radiation is given rather then before. I was not aware that it made a difference if cisplatin is given directly before or after radiation. I could not find any other studies on the matter and any info would help.

Thank you,

Swati

Hi Swati,
my understanding was it's most effective every 21 days but I would ask the oncologist. I always had my dose after treatment. A good thing since the main nausea event will occur about 2 hours after infusion. Cisplatin's toxicity is well known and they may have a different regime for your father based on other health conditions. Strangely, in all of the sites I visited, no mention of radiation was made. All this time I thought that Cisplatin had to be an adjunct to radiation but that is not the case.

The link below will tell you more than you want to know about it, but it is interesting:
http://www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/personal/sl/Html/Frames.html

I'm doing the cisplatin every 21 days as well, not really sure why... I'm also doing it right before radiation... Fortunately, I haven't had a "main nausea" event, thankfully, just a week or so of queasiness... which might be as bad...

I'm scheduled for one more round on Aug. 31...

Hi Eric,
I believe you will find a detailed answer to the 21 day question in the link in my earlier post. It is efficacious for about 3 weeks. The second Tx was far worse than the first for me. I shudder to think if I could have tolerated a third Tx - they canceled the third one. Whatever, it did the trick, I have been cancer free for 18 months now. Keep your fluid intake up to protect your liver and kidneys.

SLF, my experience was tongue cancer, spread to several lymph nodes. You didn't mention where the primary was but from your post I'm assuming it was tongue.

Getting follow up radiation will probably increase the probablility of long term survival by a large percentage. Side efffects can be reduced by the type of rad done, XRT where there is a wide beam approach vs IMRT where the beam is aimed specifically at the tumors and manipulated to miss such things as salivary glands etc. Chemo, mainly Cisplatin is used as an addition to help the radiaton do it's job.

I had a recurrance about 6 months after finishing treatment for the first surgery, the cancer had spread to the opposide side and gotten into 2 lymph nodes. Surgery again followed by IMRT and Cisplatin, recommended by the doc to stop the spread hopefully once and for all. I'm a year plus post that treatment and last scan was a-ok.

Unfortunatly, from what I see treatment seems to vary country by country, and at least in US and HK (where I had treatment) surgery is almost always followed by rad+chemo to stop any spread.

I'd advocate to the doc do to the rad+chemo. In this battle you want all the weapons you can get ahold of. Just My Humble Opinion.
Bob