Half Way Thru Oncology

A little frustrated, but still cracking thru.  Chemo is not so hot ansd some days I cannot do it.  The docs are working on it.

I am a 45 year old female, raised five kids, became a nurse this last August, and know Icannot work.  My youngest son (17 yrs) passed away Jan. 2007, all the other children are 20 to 26.  The have been awesome.

I feel like I am loosing everything, and was home from surgery a week and a half before I even knew that I had 2 GBM's. 

Any encouragement and info would help me,  goood, bad, and or ugly.

Thank You,

Cathy

Well, your half way through. Congratulations on that, its no easy accomplishment but your doing it. It must be great to have your kids as your companions when you need them the most. My wife has been through a lot this past year, diagnosed with AAIII last February of '2007, the radiation really took a toll but she is doing much better these days. She is taking temodar 5 days a month and the week after she takes it she gets very tired. It's our new normal, these cycles of fatigue. Still she has a terrific attitude and lets very little get her down. Try to stay focused on getting through the rest of chemo, it sounds like your doing well with a situation that is obviously not enjoyable. I'll be thinking of you as you fight on. All the best, Brandon.

Thank you Brandon,

How does your wife deal with the pain? Nausea, is it a problem?

That is wearing me out?

Again thanks,

Cathy

Cathy, my wife's headaches are most always mild so no real issue there. When she gets them she can take a Tylenol and that usually helps. As for the nausea, she takes Zofran (generic form) 1 hour before she takes her Temodar and that blocks her body from wanting to become nauseous. It works 100% of the time, she has never been nauseous from taking Temodar thanks to the Zofran. This type of drug is called an anti-anemic. Zofran and Kytril are both of this class and if your not taking one of these to help with the nausea, maybe it would be good to ask about. Again, it seems to make a major difference in my wife's quality of life during treatments.