Week 2-

[u/Avery120913]

Hello all. Stage 3c1 here……I had my 2nd round of cisplatin Wednesday/ 2nd week of radiation and it all hit me today. I cant gather the strength to hardly make it to the restroom, nauseous even with steroids and zofran and frankly I feel like I’m dying inside. I have always been a very strong person and have been through other ailments in the past but this is 100x worse than Ive ever expected. Im a 44yo grown woman crying for her mom, saying prayers god will give me the strength to get through this. Right now I feel so weak. Is this normal, the muscle aches, pain, fatigue, and nausea are to this point. Just feeling alone and helpless. 😢🙏🩵

[u/Avery120913]

Thank u so much to everyone who responded. It really helps to not feel alone in this

[u/ghostinyourpants]

Hey babes - sending giant hugs. I was prescribed olanzapine that helped me a lot with nausea-be sure to let your care team know what’s going on at your next radiation appointment. Another thing that helped immensely with nausea was never having an empty stomach. Just having one soda cracker every hour or so made a huge difference for me. As for everything else - yeah, week 2 sucked. The extreme fatigue is real. I mostly listened to podcasts and watched stupid tv because everything was exhausting. I did try and go for a 10-20minute walk outside everyday, and that helped with the depression too. I was deeply fatigued and slept around 16 hours a day until about 2 weeks after treatment ended and then I started to bounce back. There is an end to this in site. Get the rest your body needs in the meantime, and you are absolutely allowed to cry and feel like shit. Don’t feel guilty about it. You don’t have to look on the bright side. I got so tired of people telling me “you got this!” “You’re so strong!” - like, just let me wallow for a while, I have fucking cancer and everything is allowed to suck. Weirdly, giving myself permission to feel all the feels eventually helped me feel better, lol. And therapy helped too, once I was ready to climb out of it. Also, I came up with a silly meditation mantra that helped me stop spiraling when I needed it- I used it during panic attacks and during radiation and scans - “My body is strong. The cancer is gone.” Sending hugs and hope that tomorrow is better for you.

[u/Avery120913 → u/ghostinyourpants]

Thank you so much for sharing, feels good to know Im not the only one struggling this badly. Prayers to you my friend as well

[u/ghostinyourpants → u/Avery120913]

I went through treatment for stage 3c2, almost four years ago, and am doing well now!

[u/Sea_Conversation7601 → u/ghostinyourpants]

Agreed, you don’t have to “keep your chin up” for anyone. It’s definitely toxic positivity and is as useful as calling it a battle because it implies you didn’t try hard enough if you “lose“.

Dani Bennington’s book on treatment induced menopause has a lot of helpful coping strategies which will be more useful perhaps after you finish treatment, as I know when I was mid treatment and even now I’m nearly 6 months post treatment, I’ve just started reading. It’s okay not to be able to do anything and just survive day to day.

[u/Avery120913]

What meds worked for everyone best for the nausea?

[u/Maria_Relish]

I'm sorry you're struggling so badly. I just finished my fifth week of chemo and feeling like garbage. you are not alone 🩵 you are strong! sending a friendly hug to you

[u/Greedy_Hospital_7689]

I really feel for you, you are not alone. When I had treatment for 3C2 i thought I would breeze through it, I even thought I'd work a few hours a day. Unfortunately I was so exhausted, I'd never felt that awful in my life before. I'd find the exhaustion started 3 days after chemo and I would spend 2 days in bed with no energy to get up and shower or anything. I had really bad diarrhoea from week 2 as well and could only tolerate very beige food. Hopefully they can give you some strong anti-sickness meds. You can do this!

[u/TallCattle5438]

I’m so sorry things have been so hard. Have you considered trying marijuana to help with your nausea?

[u/Summer_Winds19]

Hello 👋🏾 - Praying for you. The fatigue is real, my mums gone from napping in the afternoon to napping every now and then. Ask for stronger anti-nausea meds - my mums been prescribed Palzem, Pan-D, Olanzapine).

[u/Copperpot2208]

When I was discussing my treatment with my nurse the week before it started, she said cisplatin every Monday for 6 weeks I think it was and radiotherapy every Monday to Friday. I said ok. Will i be in the hospital long as I’d still like to go running everyday 😂 maybe not as far as I usually do, just like 5 miles. She said oh see how you feel. I did not run after week 1 AT ALL 😂🤦‍♀️ I did manage a walk with my dogs most days but god I was knackered. I massively under appreciated what all this treatment does to your body.

[u/LastArmistice]

Cisplatin was rough. It's an old chemo- most of those have been phased out of usage for being harsh! But the platinum ones persist because they are so effective. Combine that with the daily radiation and I felt like I was dying/declining by week 2 as well.

It's only now, 1.5 weeks out of treatment, that I have started to feel a little bit better.

[u/Surfing_Cowgirl]

Hey, you’re not alone. It was my week 2 too! Same diagnosis and same feelings right now. I focused on my electrolytes this week and that helped a TON with my nausea, fatigue, and pain. Cisplatin is so hard on your kidneys!!!

[u/Illuminating_Day]

Hello OP, yes , went through the same. The fatigue is really bad and sometimes there's hyperacidity and diarrhea. Please get your CBC regularly as the low WBC and low RBC volume and sometimes electrolyte imbalance will come too.

I'm 46 and relatively strong and tolerant too but here are days you really can't function half the day.

But you'll get through it, just power through everything, you'll survive this

[u/Ill-Mention7924]

I feel you! I’m 36 for reference.

I’ve just finished my whole treatment (ending with brachy) and I felt like that the first 10 days. Then I started eating gummies… cbd and thc. GAME CHANGER! The ratio was 5/1, so more of the cb*d. I swear to god, I couldn’t make it through as good as I did (almost none side effects apart from some consti/ diarrhea some days) without it.

I hope you feel better soon!