Men's Health

[T.C.]

About half-way through the treatment. No adverse reactions so far. About an hour left, I think.

Ksee’s dad brought me and she’s coming to pick me up when she finishes work.

The nurses have already given me my meds to take home (anti-sickness and steroids). I’ve ordered a thermometer which will arrive tomorrow.

No problems. Looking forward to getting all this over with and getting back to normal.

 

[T.C.]

A brief update on how it’s going.

No serious side-effects so far from the chemo. It’s been three days and I was informed by my consultant that I’d start to feel worse around now.

I’m a bit dizzy. Felt a bit cold earlier and checked my temperature, which was a tad low at 36.4. My abdomen is a bit tender. I’m finding it hard to get to sleep at night. Bit of a headache yesterday. I can cope with these things.

My main concern is my arm where I was given the chemo. I told the nurses multiple times at the hospital that it was stinging, but they were happy that there was no chemo escaping from the vein, the pressure in the drip was correct.

The injection site, back of my hand, and going up the top of my forearm are still stinging now. I called the 24hr team at the hospital for advice because I just wanted to know if this was normal or common. I can’t get a straight answer out of them though. They’re so conditioned to be alert to infections in chemo patients (due to lowered immune system) that that’s all they want to check and so they’ve asked me to go into hospital tomorrow for examination. I’ve told two nurses on the phone that there’s no hotness, redness, swelling etc., I just want to know if what I’m experiencing is common, but I’m struggling to find anything about it online either because all results just tend towards either infection or peripheral neuropathy and as far as I’m concerned it’s neither of those.

Ksee’s taking me in the morning for a 10:15 appointment. It quite a trek, to a bigger city with a lot of traffic and it feels like a bit of a waste of time. I expect they’ll just tell me it’s a reaction and that there’s no way of telling how long it will last. I just want to rule out serious or ongoing damage to the area. I heard the main nurse telling another patient that they can’t give chemo high up the arm because if any escapes from the vein, there’s a lot of sensitive tissues and it could lead to amputation. So I just want to rule out anything potentially serious.

 

[A Jay]

I heard the main nurse telling another patient that they can’t give chemo high up the arm because if any escapes from the vein, there’s a lot of sensitive tissues and it could lead to amputation. So I just want to rule out anything potentially serious.

Sounds like a good idea to be inconvenienced if it means making sure nothing gets amputated.

 

[Mari]

The injection site, back of my hand, and going up the top of my forearm are still stinging now. I called the 24hr team at the hospital for advice because I just wanted to know if this was normal or common. I can’t get a straight answer out of them though. They’re so conditioned to be alert to infections in chemo patients (due to lowered immune system) that that’s all they want to check and so they’ve asked me to go into hospital tomorrow for examination. I’ve told two nurses on the phone that there’s no hotness, redness, swelling etc., I just want to know if what I’m experiencing is common, but I’m struggling to find anything about it online either because all results just tend towards either infection or peripheral neuropathy and as far as I’m concerned it’s neither of those.

I had a small operation a few years back and I was put into general anaesthesia. They´ve put a needle in my hand, etc, and the nurse, for a good measure, slapped my hand so that she can batter show my vanes to the pupil. I thought I will scream or faint or both from the feeling, as I´m generally afraid of injections and all of that. And what she did was really painful as the vanes were already really showing but she kept slamming on them.

I felt that needle for weeks in my hand. It hurt on touch, but also, from psychological point, even touching that spot sometimes made me dizzy and nauseous. So I´m not sure if my experience is helpful or not, but yes, you are not alone in feeling.

What you had was even stronger stuff going trough your vain, and from my point of view, no wonder your hand and arm are still stinging. But, yes, keep observing it and I hope it will all go away soon.

 

[T.C.]

It was pretty much as I thought. Probably just vein irritated by the carboplatin. I’ll go back for a follow-up appointment in a few weeks and it should have gone by then.