So I am coming to the end of week 4 of treatment 5 chemo (last one will be next week)! Radio and brachy. Firstly if any ladies are reading this and about to start it really isn’t as bad as I thought with hardly any side effects so far. Apart from day after chemo days I’m wiped and sick and wired awake with steroids but that’s about it. I’ve managed the gym and yoga to keep up my excersise up.
I do have two questions that is peering it’s head…how bad is the brachy? Can I walk? What are the side effects any ladies have experienced?
Also after all this is over and the three months wait starts how likely is it to have cured? Any ladies out there treatment didn’t work?? I’m so scared of going through this and it not working…what happens then?? More chemo ? Radio? I’m petrified it doesn’t work and I’m back to square one? How likely is this?
Sorry to ramble. Any light on the above would be greatly appreciated.
You will find several threads on here where women are saying that the brachy wasn't nearly so bad as they had feared. It's just like what you have just experienced - the chemo and radio weren't nearly as bad as you thought and neither is the brachy :-)
It is very rare indeed that this treatment fails to work. I know that the three month wait is a daunting prospect but try to distract yourself, you will become more nervous the closer it gets to your first follow-up exam so it's best not to start thinking about the what-ifs this far ahead! If it helps at all, my husband has had only radiotherapy for cancer in his throat and he has just been told that that has worked, so with your additional chemo and brachy why wouldn't it?
you guys are almost there and are starting to ponder different scenarios. This is totally normal. However, no one knows for certain anything.
a few months ago we didn't even know we would be going through all of this. Life is a very uncertain thing, we blissfully go through each day without thinking about many things, then this cancer entered our lives .....
this demon has changed our thought process and we live in fear of soooo many things, like...is treatment working, will it come back??? no one can answer these things but we must stay positive, this is our weapon against this evil, not to let it control us....
i have these scary thoughts too, but remind myself that I am here today and I won't let cancer rule my life. I repeat over and over that I am going to be ok no matter what life has in store. There is another post that mentions finding the calm.... this is so true, try to immediatly change your thoughts as soon as these scary ones enter your head. Tell yourself it's gonna be ok. I do know how hard this is and it's kind of a lonely thing but you guys can get through this it just takes time to learn how to deal with your thoughts. Everyday I learn something else I have to overcome and I try not to be overwhelmed with all these things I look around and see such nice things and remind myself how lucky I am, truly focus on nice things not the bad
You will walk right out of your brachy each time. For me there is no recovery time. The instant they remove everything for me I am recovered 100%. I really don't even bleed after. As far as during the brachy? My answer will differ dramatically depending on the day. Sometimes I have no pain when I wake up on and off throughout the procedure, sometimes it's pretty immense pain. I do manage to sleep through most of it. It's tolerable though. For me it just can feel like menstrual cramps on sterroids, or labor pains. It takes them a few minutes to get them under control once I wake up from Anesthesia. I STILL prefer these to the chemo since they have no recovery. My body didn't like the chemo and my blood work messed up after week 3, so I was only able to get 4 out of 6 cistplatons.
I've been following your posts nm and wondering how you got on with the Brachy so thanks for posting I'm still petrified mainly because I feel so weak after the chemo rads. I hardly eat Monday to Thursday because of the nausea Just hope the new meds kick in
Just on a side my poor little pug who is constantly by my side has stopped eating too Must be getting my bad vibes x
Thanks ladies. It's so hard to keep positive sometimes but I know it's the only way. I really wana travel and just see the world now and go off to do my yoga trsining it's given me a new appreciation for life but at the same time a fearful one of that. I'm scared it's not worked, it will come back , it's spread buy how do you prevent this? No one has really helped with my diet the dietician sat the h are pretty poor with white bread and rice advice to eat??? No nutrition value there! I'm trying but research gets overwhelming and end up with veggie pizza lol as I don't eat red meat, don't smoke nor drink so I think why the hell have I got this?!?
Sorry to rant!! Thanks so much for the brachy info that's reasurred me a lot!!
i hope I'm lucky like m some woman on here.
i would be interested in hearing from any ladies that went through this and it didn't work ? What are the options?? What happens then?? Just to prepare myself
pizza sounds great, better then my French fries I ate most of my treatment. No worries after treatment you can go back to eating better. A well balanced diet is all you really need. Do not get obsessed with food.
Do what makes you happy!! Yoga or whatever!
If you type in treatment didn't work in the search bar you will find some stories of other women and what happened. Not that bad after all. Trust me I've thought about this too. I honestly have just decided to believe it is working and not to waste my mind thoughts on things that get me upset Or worried.
Brachy is easy! I actually miss the nice nurses in that dept. i would take brachy over a run to the loo any day.
For me the brachytherapy was absolutely fine. Everyone seems to have it administered differently. Mine was two overnight stays in hospital with the braccy delivered every hour for 18 (,I think) hours. Straight up and walking afterwards and I think it even got rid of the sharp sting I was feeling when I had a wee.
Braccy definitely isn't the awful experience we all think it's going to be.
My 7cm tumour had gone at the 3 month check up - I'm left with scar tissue.
Don't get hung up on the 'what if it doesn't work ', concentrate on the 'what if it does work'. Make plans that you want to do and do them.
I know it's not easy but try to put this episode of your life behind you.
I really thought I'd struggle to do that an I do get the occasional moment but for most of the time I forget what's happened to me over the past 12 months x
I am so glad you wrote. I was wondering how you were getting on. That is so great that you are almost at the end of your treatment.
I can't offer any advice on the brachy coz I've just started chemorads but everyone says it's not as bad as it seems. So that gives me hope too.
I can sympathise with you with the diet. I have bought a protein powder from the health shop - as natural as you can get - so that I am still getting all the essential nutrients because I dont always feel like eating thanks to the chemorads. I have been making smoothies with the powder and when I am up to it just eating as healthy as I can. I was so super healthy and active before this too, and it made me wonder as well - why did I get this? but then I realise that cervical Cancer doesn't discriminate amongst any girl. I wish we could all healthily eat our way out of this but unfortunately that doesn't work.
I think chemorads is a very effective treatment. My doctors are really confident with it. I know the chance of recurrence is frightening. I am also fearful of that and like you also haven't even finished the treatment. everyone also says that lessens in time. I like how you said Philleepa that you sometimes forget the last 12 months. That sounds good to me.
Geo - we are all here for you. Thinking about you. You are one brave lady. You're almost finished - you've got this.
Hey rosie so nice to heAr from you too! I hope you are ok?!
Thankyou think positive thinking is the only way forward. Also to cry every now and then is healing too.
At my last day of chemo today! I was too ill this morning. D they said might not go ahead with chemo but I insisted!! They thought I was mad. Dr said I am too poorly as toilet all morning being sick! But I want the full whack so they've given me stronger anti sickness called Emend (kylie monogue had this) After I found this out its expensive to make! Anyhow I'm on my last drip of chemo today I get to ring the bell! Then radio Friday thrn three brachys!
All of you ladies help me massively Thankyou I'm not so scared now for brachy
I didn't know Kylie Minogue had had Emend but I knew it was expensive - I had to pay for all my treatment so I know exactly that each pill cost 16 Euros five years ago and that was at hospital prices! Not marked-up in a pharmacy! so 48 Euros for a pack of three, every week for five weeks. But, it works! :-)
What a delightful thing for her to have said! And what would she know? We are all different, some people have a worse time than others but I don't think I have heard of anybody feeling awful for three months after treatment has finished. Perhaps she'd just split up with her boyfriend and felt like being spiteful.
