Postby MikeManess » Fri May 20, 2016 10:24 pm
Trying to not hijack your thread, but I had my first round of Folfox today and thought it might be worth sharing with you.
Yesterday (Thursday) I had my port put in. Not too bad, but wish they had knocked me out instead of just numbing the heck out of me. But I survived and the only thing that hurt a bit was the injections to numb my shoulder and neck. It smarted a little, but only lasted a few moments.
My particular chemo cocktail I was given for my first IV rounds were anti-nausea drugs and steroids. Next was iron, because I'm a bit anemic from the tumor. Finally, the Folfox. The Oxaliplatin and Leucovorin were the first of the Folfox cocktail given, and were given together. This took just over 2 hours. Finally, a bolus of 5-FU was given, which took about 15 minutes, then the fanny pack of 5-FU to take over the next couple of days.
Everyone is different, and their response to the various chemo drugs is different. So your mileage may vary (see dealer for details). The effects I have noticed thus far is some fatigue, the beginnings of tingling and numbness in my fingers and a tiny bit in my toes, a brief introduction to bite pain and cold sensitivity in my mouth, and for some strange reason I have muscle weakness in my left hand. It's not a listed side-effect that I could see on quick glance through the papers I have so don't know what's going on there.
I also notice just a slight bit of nausea, but not much. It's sort of like the nausea I get if I get hungry and don't eat.
So I have only 11 more to go - you'll be where I am now Monday evening. So far, it's nothing to be scared of, we knew going in that this isn't KoolAid and there would be some side-effects. Knowing and experiencing are two different things, but I'm happy to be experiencing it because the alternative is something we don't want to experience. So far, it's nothing to be scared of, so don't stress too much this weekend about it.
Take care!
3/11/16 Colonoscopy - 9 benign polyps, 1 large cancerous tumor in right ascending colon
4/19/16 Right colectomy
6/3/16 Two liver spots detected, added Avastin to Folfox
12/20/16 Liver surgery. Pathology shows no active cancer cells
6/7/17 Final chemo
12/5/17 Port removed
05/23/18 Liver tumor discovered in scans
04/04/19 Radiation treatment
08/15/19 Additional radiation treatment
08/21/19 NED again