Ulendon wrote:I'm starting chemo next week. The procedure will be a bit different because of covid. I'll be taking pills and coming in only once every 3 weeks for Oxaliplatin infusion.
So, it looks like your adjuvant chemo will be the CAPEOX/XELOX regimen. This time around the Xeloda will probably be at a higher daily dose than what you had during chemo/radiation. The dose you had during chemo/radiation was a reduced dose to serve only as a radiation sensitizer.
So you should be prepared for a possibly higher level of side effects because both the Xeloda and the Oxaliplatin will be at full strength.
There are two things you can do now in preparation before chemo chemo starts in order to avoid certain problems later on.
1. Do a good pedicure and manicure to clean out any dirt/bacteria/fungus under the nails. This is to help avoid nail infections if it turns out that you have a bad case of hand-foot syndrome.
2. Do a good job of cleaning your teeth before the start of chemo to remove any food particles near the gum-line. Then get a good non-alcohol based mouth rinse to use after each meal to clean out any new embedded food particles. Always clean your mouth before going to sleep. This is to help reduce or inhibit mouth sores.
Since you will be seeing the doctor only once every three weeks, you need to keep a good daily log of symptoms so that you can quickly notify the doctor if there are any big changes in side effect severity. You may need to contact the doctor in the middle of the cycle if things start to get out of control quickly. Be sure you have a good contact number for assistance on week-ends and holidays.
One more point: Be sure to stay well hydrated. This is to help restore the electrolyte balance and to prevent kidney damage. Even better, if you could drink a sports drink like Gatorade every now and then this would help even more in restoring electrolyte balance.
Here are some tips for the CAPEOX/ XELOX regimen:
Side effects of XELOX (CAPEOX) regimenhttps://coloncancersupport.colonclub.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=59287&p=469490#p469490https://coloncancersupport.colonclub.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=61932&p=490294#p490294Good luck! Let us know how the first infusion went.