Hello Jules, 

I am so sorry to hear about these strong chemotherapy side effects you have experienced recently. It does sound really tough and I hope you have now recovered from that awful night. I hope you will hear from some of our members who have had side effects similar to the ones you describe and that they will have some good tips for you to help you overcome them. There is an interesting section on our website on chemotherapy side effects which you can find here. 

I think it would be a good idea to get in touch with your nurse or your doctor to let them know how severe these side effects are and whether they have any suggestions for you to help you alleviate your suffering. I am sure that they will be able to help you minimize the diarrhoea for example and any other side effect that you find difficult to bear.  Poor you, it really doesn't sound easy and I hope that you can get some good relief from these terrible side effects soon. 

Feel free to get in touch with our cancer nurses too who may well have some good additional advice for you on this. You can ring them on this free number 0808 800 4040 - their line is open Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm (except this Monday as they are closed for Easter)

Best wishes, 

Lucie, Cancer Chat Moderator

Hello Jules,

Looks like you have had quite a daunting experience for nearly 3 years now with yet another round of Chemotherapy with several usual difficult side effects particularly bloating and diarrhoea.

I relate to all that you are going through as my wife often suffered with all these side effects during nine months of two types of Chemotherapy treatment. It was a never ending battle to balance treatment of the cancer and it’s side effects (which in turn have their own side effects) Morphine or Paracetamol  for pain relief usually caused constipation then a laxative like Laxido for constipation brought on more diarrhoea followed by a drug like Loperamide to stop the diarrhoea. As you said it is all extremely exhausting and stressful.

It was good advice from the moderator’s reply to get in touch with the professional people about your concerns, as all of us who are going/gone through these treatments/side effects will have varying issues and outcomes.

I suggest you make an urgent appointment with your Oncology Consultant  to talk over your prognosis and major concerns that you said you have at the end of your message.

Best Wishes,

Colin

Hi Colin,

thank you for your comment it helps to know that I'm not alone in the type and severity of side effects I'm experiencing.

My Oncologist has now decided not to give me treatment this week and I have an appointment to see him on the 20th April, apparently to discuss my options and come up with a plan, this has been relayed to me by one of the oncology nurses.

im now quite worried as it sounds like they may not want to give me any more chemo. My diarrhoea was severe this time but I was sure they would try and manage it with loperamide or something but it seems maybe not. They are concerned that my kidneys will be affected by the diarrhoea but my bloods yesterday showed they were still ok, so now I'm confused and worried as this was the only treatment available to me to help prolong life. I guess I'll just have to wait and see!

it's so disappointing as I didn't have these side effects with the 6 cycles of the same treatment I had last year.

To top it all of half of one of my teeth has fell out and I'm in pain with that. It could be that I have to go into hospital to have the tooth out as it can't be done at a dentist surgery due to the chemo and steroids I have been on. It really never ends!

im keeping my fingers crossed that this will all pass and I can get back on track

jules