Surviving Chemotherapy
The challenge of Undergoing Treatment

Surviving Chemotherapy! Would I recommend chemo to anyone as a pastime? No.

Would I relish the thought of going through it again? Definitely not.

How about in a life or death situation? Of course, silly.

The Treatment

My chemotherapy treatment involved six sessions of a protocol called TAC. I still don’t know what it stands for, and the mere thought of it makes me feel nauseous.

For hundreds of thousands of people, chemo regimes like TAC are an essential reality.

The key to surviving chemotherapy regimes is to trust your instincts, listen to your body, and go with the flow.

I went to chemo every 21 days for six sessions. Every time, I took a friend. Every time, we did a craft, or found ways to amuse ourselves. We took the edge off the moment by keeping the mood light and finding new and exciting things to laugh about.

My chemo day was Tuesday, and I never felt too bad immediately after.

The real fun started on Wednesday morning as I hummed and hawed and wondered when to inject the single $2,000 syringe I had been instructed to poke into my body to help me survive.

The self-injection was the most taxing component of the entire cycle. I am not a nurse or a doctor, or even a perfusionist. I am a lady. Ladies do not inject themselves with chemicals.

The Side Effects

Once I was past Wednesday’s survival needle, I knew I would begin a steady downhill slide that would take me into Saturday morning.

Try as I might, I could not rise above the nausea and I-feel-like-I-have-the-flu-while-treading-water-with-cement-attached-to-my-feet feelings that began as Wednesday afternoon progressed. It felt as though glue was coursing through my veins, and everything I ate tasted like metal.

How to Cope with Chemotherapy...

I learned not to fight, and instead, spent my downtime sleeping or looking forward to Saturday morning.

I didn't eat if I didn't feel like it; I didn't drink if I didn’t feel like it; and I followed my body’s cues, always keeping in mind that Saturday morning I’d emerge like a groundhog from his hole. I’d sit up, shake my head, and bounce out of bed to face a brand new day.

How to survive chemo? It’s a temporary condition. Just keep in mind the fact that you WILL feel better, and focus on that. In the meantime, curl up under your bed and stay warm and hopefully, unconscious.

The book "I Put the Can in Cancer" also provides a powerful reminder of all the things you can still do, despite the the effects of cancer and chemotherapy...

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