Smee, no new research on cancer and Vit D dosage. Some indications of better survival in those with good Vit D levels, but it's anyone's guess what the best dose is. Nothing too extreme, they seem to say. I take it every day (10 ug) and really notice when I haven't.
Lily, ooo, other way round from me with the T then FEC.
Port thingy is an operation. Took about an hour under sedation/local anaesthetic. One cut on neckline of about half inch long, one cut about 2 ins long on chest near where a bra strap would be. They then wiggle it into place and away you go. The needle for chemo then goes into the unit through the skin, which will be a bit ow - same as any other injection - but it's nifty.
I took ginger supplements for three days before each chemo dose, and it seemed to work for stopping the worst of nausea. Sipping ginger beer afterwards any time you feel nauseous might work too. And I used those wrist bands - seabands - which also helped.
T (assuming it's Docetaxel) That's one straightforward potion. They'll put in an antisickness thing and possibly a steroid thing first - then drip the rest in for a good long while. You'll have saline to flush the line at the start and end too. But all you have to do is let them get on with it whilst you read a magazine/whatever. The drip thingy is normally on wheels so you can take it for a walk to the loo if you need to. Top tip - ask for frozen gloves, and take in some bags of frozen veg in a coolbag, wrapped in a few carrier bags. Use these to cool your toes, whilst the frozen mitts cool your hands. Drink iced water whilst you're having the chemo as well. Take your own of both in case there's nothing like that there. That way not as much chemo gets to your fingers and toes nor your mouth - and you may find you don't have nail problems or nerve problems or mouth ulcer problems.
If you feel sick, say. They have nine sorts of antisickness stuff. Never ever suffer with being sick. Get them to fix it. I wasn't very nauseous with the Docetaxel. I found FEC worse for that.
Rest and see how you go. I found it was fine whilst I was taking steroid tablets, but a s*d when I stopped them, so I negotiated with my Onc to tail off the dose a bit rather than stop it straight away each cycle. Day 5-6 was Dodgy Tum Day for me with rotten gastric ow, but I learned to take anything I could take for it. You might not find you react the same way.
That's a start, anyway. I worked all the way through mine, which shows that some of us are stark raving mad able to carry on.