Sounds all too familiar....
Hi,
I had CAFx6 around 6 years ago. Canada and Europe tend to use CEF whereas at least back then, the US tended to use CAF, but the "E" and the "A" are essentially the same thing. Most folks now get AC followed by TH, or TH, or a similar regimen of those drugs. So there probably will be fewer people here now who know what it is like to have CEF or CAF.
The usual advice applies, maybe more for us than for other regimens. Be sure to take the lorazepam and whatever antinausea medication you get ahead of time. When I had CAF, the only antinausea medication was ondansetron (Zofran). Drink lots of water to wash out the drugs, especially the C, since letting it stick around the bladder any longer than necessary is a bad idea. It is hard to drink the water, so you might have to take sips, or suck on ice chips to accumulate the water more gradually so that you don't upchuck it instead. Do whatever you can to increase your general comfort so that something else doesn't just add to your misery, like make sure you are in a cool enough or warm enough environment. The chills really don't help at all, and the chemo rooms are notoriously chilly so that they don't encourage growth of germs. As you start to improve, use anything you can that is pleasantly distracting to keep your thoughts from returning to what you have been going through -- a DVD you have been wanting to see, a magazine article, a book, anything to keep your mind as busy as possible. You may need compazine in addition. The constipation is a problem I know. I used prunes and prune juice plus roughage and that helped.... a little.
100% sympathetically,
AlaskaAngel
|