Question about chemotherapy and side-effects, please help

[ConcernedAboutBIL]

I am a regular but have namechanged for my sister's privacy.

My BIL had surgery a while back to remove a lump which was thought to benign. It's been tested and found to be malignant. The surgeons think they have removed all the cancerous tissue, but to be on the safe side, they have told him that he will have to have "mild" chemo. (This is also because he is young - 26 - and this sort of cancer normally occurs in much older men).

This will involve taking tablets every day for a fortnight, then having a couple of weeks off, then repeating this cycle 8 times (I may have that slightly wrong, but in essence it's correct).

He's been told that he won't lose his hair, but that there are a variety of possible sideeffects, and I was wondering

a) what he might face
b) are there any treatments that might help him with the side-effects, homeopathic or otherwise
c) what can we do to help - both him and my sister?

Thank you for your help - this isn't something any of us have had to face before, so we are all a bit at sea.

try the cancerbacup thinks its www.cancerbacup.org.uk website and and check with the oncology dept if there is helpline in dept to contact with queries or a specialist nurse

this thread may help.

It honestly depends on exactly the cocktail of drugs that they have him on, and the exact doses. Obviously nausea, vomiting, and tiredness are pretty common, but the first two should be controllable with the drugs they'll give for it.
A lot of people find reflexology and massage helpful, and he may be able to access those through the cancer centre, or a Maggies centre. He should be careful of taking vit supplements, herbal remedies etc, as you can get some funny side effects.

My dh is coming to the end of a year long course of what they term 'mild' or biological chemotherapy. His is daily tablets and weekly injections. His worse side effects are for the few days following the injection. His 'best' days are the two days prior to the injection. Although he feels washed out and unwell most of the time.

I am very pro complimentary therapies to supplement, but my dh is against them, but do look into these.

As for how you can help them, what helps my dh is time for him to rest and sleep - so if they hasve dc maybe you could help with them, or perhaps help with the shopping or gardening?

Best wishes

PC
x

It depends what chemo he is on, since they have a very wide range of symptoms.

nausea should be controled by the antiemetics they give him....if it isn't he should contact the unit asap, and get different drugs as there are a wide range and not all of them work for everyone.

some self hypnosis techniques can be helpful for some people, but nothing 'complimentary' has helped dh in any of his 3 different sets of chemo

do tell the oncology dept if ye are planning to use complimentry medicine eg herbal as some chemotherapy drugs made from plants and may be interaction

oh yes, sorry, I agree with meg, you do need to tell the docs if you are going to try some complimentary things