If you had chemo - did you take any precautions around the home?

[Catchingbentcoppers]

I know to flush to toilet twice after chemo etc., but I'm a bit paranoid and wondered if anyone did anything else around the house?

I've had chemo, my mother had chemo - for different types of cancer.

Why flush twice? Genuine question.

Bodily fluids from people who have had chemo are cytotoxic and can be damaging to people especially pregnant people that's probably why prok

But the loo? - who comes that close to your waste?

I had a look at my notes - I was not told to take any precautions whatsoever. Apart from trying to avoid colds and taking it easy ( I had two under two, so I ignored that).
I wonder if this is a "different health care systems" thing?

We weren’t told anything specific when DH had chemo.

You need to be careful with urine, but it’s in the toilet isn’t it.

The American Cancer Society recommend it but not sure about the NHS as a whole, we don't recommend double flushing here AFAIK

I’ve had chemo. I can’t think of anything like that that I did, including the toilet flushing thing (never heard that before). I stayed away from people I knew had colds or infections, and stayed out of the sun or covered up completely if I went out (more prone to burning). .

Condoms or abstention.

Oh that's good to know! The chemo nurse told me to flush the toilet twice and make sure there were no splashes for the first 48 hours after chemo. I'm not actually sure why, I just nodded my head and started panicking if I should be doing anything else, bit she was called away to another patient.

When my son was having chemo I put signs on my door asking not to come in if visitor had any signs of any illness, cough cold etc. That's the only thing I did I think. And only during his intensive chemo.

Yes, condoms. Forgot about that.

Only time I’ve been concerned re flushing was post barium swallow.
I’m a bit obsessive about hand hygiene but otherwise no specific precautions. The hand washes have always been my way of reducing infection risks generally and not chemo related.
Otherwise GCSF injections to bring up white cell count was all I did differently in terms of infection.
Work was higher risk than home.

This really sets my mind at rest. I have the GCSF injections to have though I'm a bit nervous about injecting myself!

They’re fine. You get used to it and it’s only four days each cycle. Chemo was OK. Radio I found harder as it was daily and very boring.

It may depend on type of chemo but when my son had chemo the extra precautions we took were:
Azowiping surfaces/high chair/ shared toys he used in hospital.
Avoiding anyone with colds or other bugs.
If he went outside in the sun we used sunglasses, hat and cream.
He had a Hickman line and were paranoid about infection so no baths for 8 months (!) just bed baths/washing.
Good luck with the treatment.

Thank you folks. I don't suppose anyone can suggest something for constipation? I'm on the prune juice and keeping my fingers crossed at the mo.

Fybogel. It's a powder that you mix with water, stir like crazy, and drink. Soluble fibre. You can get it in orange flavour.

catching Senna tablets and lactulose. First moves it along, second softens it. It's a balancing act to get it right.

As for chemo precautions, I wipe door handles, light switches - basically things that people touch a lot - with Dettol wipes, and have little bottles of hand gel dotted about for people to use. Stay away from animal waste, soil - no gardening and no flowers/plants in the house.
Depends on the kind of chemo and how long your immunity will be down for each cycle. I'm neutropenic for at least half of each cycle so I need to be careful. Mind you, I've only had sepsis twice (once caused by food infecting a mouth ulcer so defo not related to hygiene), and I even avoided a cold and sickness bug that everyone else in the house had thanks to my hand gels .

I'm a little worried after reading this thread, a previous boyfriend of mine had chemo and we didn't use barrier protection during. What are the risks? This was a good 12 years ago so I assume I would be aware of anything serious by now!

Nope. Avoided large gatherings of small children though, great excuse not to go to soft play/christenings/birthday parties for a good while 😷

When DH had chemo, we didn't have sex for a couple of days after each cycle. He also stayed away from family members if they were unwell, and didn't go out quite as much. But that was it really.

for you OP

Thank you all for the tips. Well have gone from constipation to the opposite so I feel like a rung out rag this morning. I think I probably had twice the amount of prune juice than was needed so need to think about that next time!

@AndNoneForGretchenWieners please don't worry, I'm sure you would know by now if there were any problems.