When will my mom stop sleeping all day from chemo?

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worrieddaughter
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When will my mom stop sleeping all day from chemo?

Postby worrieddaughter » Sat May 16, 2009 7:51 pm

My mom has had her first round of chemo. She had the folfuri with a couple of others INsomething and Leusomething (sorry big words and I dont have the paper with me) The first 2 days when she still had the pump on she felt great, even energetic. It seems like as soon as she had her pump disconected she plumpeted. She had diarreha a couple of times, cant stand ANY smells, threw up once from the smell of me cooking supper, and she has been sleeping pretty much steady since yesterday afternoon. Does anyone know how long this will last, is there anything I can do? She'll wake up for about 15 minutes at a time at the most and then back to sleep. she is feeling bey down and I qoute "sorry for herself" she said maybe she sees why people quit doing chemo. She said if I have to live like this for 6 months, whats the point of living. Will it be this bad every time?

karenM
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Re: When will my mom stop sleeping all day from chemo?

Postby karenM » Sat May 16, 2009 8:12 pm

When I have a treatment, during it, I feel pretty good. But after I get unhooked from my take home pump, say the next day, I am exhausted and have slept about 12-14 hrs a day and have no real energy the rest of the time, cant taste food, cant eat or drink any cold items, mouth feels like it has been sanded, etc.. Dont really worry tho, sleep is good for us and it all straightens out when we are done with the treatments.
Colon cancer found Nov 08- stage 3
Surgery Dec 16th 08
in hosp 16th to 23,
28th to 1st of Jan for blockage
port put in Jan 12th
Chemo started Jan 09-
ended July 09
Hospital for a wk in April for bleeding.
As of Aug 09 am NED! Thank GOD!

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Gaelen
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Re: When will my mom stop sleeping all day from chemo?

Postby Gaelen » Sat May 16, 2009 10:42 pm

Your mom NEEDS to sleep.
She's been on speed (decodron) as part of the pre-meds for her infusion. Those pre-meds help with nausea, but they also throw your sleep cycle into a knot. And when the speed wears off, she'll crash--that's the sleeping all day part.

For me, I would crash the weekend after a Wed-Fri infusion, and be back to some sort of energy level by a week after infusion. That second week, the week off, I'd be tired but I wouldn't be bedridden. Your mom may be different, but things should improve.

As for the food, the eating and the smells--when I am on chemo, food is not my friend. I am smell sensitive like a pregnant woman--the wrong smells and I'm nauseous. I had to order takeout or 'cook dinner' in the microwave to minimize cooking odors and couldn't handle any raw foods except juice, fruit and dairy. Baking bread and brewing coffee, two of my favorite smells, were horrible. The day before an infusion, I cleaned out every wastebasket in the house, cleaned both bathrooms and cleaned the kitchen, including the microwave, garbage disposal and refrigerator, and cleaned the litterbox. My neighbors put out my trash on chemo days. Poop scooping after my dog(s) was a great way to get nauseous in a hurry--and I worked with animals for a living for almost 20 years. But some days, i couldn't stand to be around any smells, and if that's how your mom is affected, there aren't a lot of things you can do except minimize odors. And don't make the mistake of thinking air fresheners will help--perfumes and cover-up smells were the worst!
Be in harmony with your expectations. - Life Out Loud
4/04: dx'd @48 StageIV RectalCA w/9 liver mets. 8 chemos, 4 surgeries, last remission 34 mos.
2/11 recurrence R lung, spinal bone mets - chemo, RFA lung mets
4/12 stopped treatment

hannahw
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Re: When will my mom stop sleeping all day from chemo?

Postby hannahw » Sun May 17, 2009 1:39 am

One of the hardest things for me with my Dad was learning how to stand down. Whenever he's not feeling well I want to buzz about and "fix" it when what he probably really needs is some peace and quiet. But that makes me feel like I'm not helping. I have literally sat on my hands before to keep myself for fussing about.

As far as your Mom feeling down and depressed, I think with treatments it's very easy to take the short view - how crappy you feel right now. But it's a marathon, not a sprint. You have to give it time, see how it's going to shake out and what you can do to adjust to the side effects. My Dad tries to address each problem individually. Isolate the problem, identify the solution, take action, see where you're at, adjust accordingly. Doesn't always work smoothly, but keeps things feeling manageable.
Daughter of Dad with Stage IV CC

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Gaelen
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Re: When will my mom stop sleeping all day from chemo?

Postby Gaelen » Sun May 17, 2009 10:28 am

hannahw wrote:One of the hardest things for me with my Dad was learning how to stand down. Whenever he's not feeling well I want to buzz about and "fix" it when what he probably really needs is some peace and quiet. But that makes me feel like I'm not helping. I have literally sat on my hands before to keep myself for fussing about.


omg, this happens SO often with my relatives, especially my mom.

One time after I'd been in the hospital for a colonoscopy and was recovering from anesthesia, ALL I wanted/needed to do was sleep of the meds. It was 1pm but Mom wanted make me lunch (which I immediately vomited up--and in five years of treatments, I've only vomited a handful of times!) I was trying to sleep on the couch so Mom decided to go through my freezer (in the kitchen, 12 feet away) looking for something to make me for dinner...even though I couldn't manage to eat the scrambled eggs she's just made. That turned into her 'reorganizing' my kitchen. Not quietly, either. Sleep--what I absolutely needed--was impossible. I finally suggested that she might like to catch some afternoon sun out on my patio with one of the magazines and crossword puzzles I'd picked up that weekend--good idea but I had to get up to set up the lounge chair because she couldn't figure out how to make it recline. Once she was out on the patio, I was able to rest about an hour until my brother came to pick her up.

Sometimes patients need to sleep, gang. It's okay, honest.
As a patient, I can promise you that you don't need to entertain me, cook for me, or talk to me when I really just need to sleep. The best thing you can do is maintain a quiet environment so that I can rest--I'll love and thank you for it when I wake up. I promise. ;)
Be in harmony with your expectations. - Life Out Loud
4/04: dx'd @48 StageIV RectalCA w/9 liver mets. 8 chemos, 4 surgeries, last remission 34 mos.
2/11 recurrence R lung, spinal bone mets - chemo, RFA lung mets
4/12 stopped treatment

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mpeters6
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Re: When will my mom stop sleeping all day from chemo?

Postby mpeters6 » Sun May 17, 2009 5:11 pm

The sleeping is very normal, but watch the depression. Her dr needs to know she is feeling depressed.
Stage III Colon Cancer; dx 8/8/07, at the age of 36; sigmoid colectomy 8/13/07; Finished 11 Rounds of Folfox 2/08; currently NED

http://michelepeters.blogspot.com

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KellyBelle
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Re: When will my mom stop sleeping all day from chemo?

Postby KellyBelle » Sun May 17, 2009 9:19 pm

worrieddaughter wrote:My mom has had her first round of chemo. She had the folfuri with a couple of others INsomething and Leusomething (sorry big words and I dont have the paper with me) The first 2 days when she still had the pump on she felt great, even energetic. It seems like as soon as she had her pump disconected she plumpeted. She had diarreha a couple of times, cant stand ANY smells, threw up once from the smell of me cooking supper, and she has been sleeping pretty much steady since yesterday afternoon. Does anyone know how long this will last, is there anything I can do? She'll wake up for about 15 minutes at a time at the most and then back to sleep. she is feeling bey down and I qoute "sorry for herself" she said maybe she sees why people quit doing chemo. She said if I have to live like this for 6 months, whats the point of living. Will it be this bad every time?


I think your mother sounds completely normal. I felt very much the same --especially after that first round (before my anti-nausea meds were tweaked). There were plenty of times I couldn't stand the smell of food in the house AT ALL, and the smell of anything being cooked (other than in the microwave) would cause a wave of nausea. Sometimes my mom had to put a plate in front of me and I ate with my eyes closed because I couldn't stand to even look at food. Luckily, I have a wonderful mother and she cooked a lot of meals at her house and brought them to me.

As for the sleep --like most everybody here said: she needs it. One of the kindest things you can do for her is to keep her home in order and as peaceful as possible on bad days.

As for your question "how long will it last"? SIX MONTHS. :( Don't expect it to get better as it goes along --for me, it only got harder because the chemo has a cumulative effect. I don't know how to differentiate between chemo side effects and depression... how someone can be on chemo for six months and not expect to be somewhat depressed, at least at times, is beyond me. Her world has been turned upside down.

What anti-nausea drugs does your mom take? I didn't have Emend for the first two treatments, and was sick as a dog... after I started taking Emend (you take one on treatment day, and one for the next two days - three pills per chemo treatment total), the nausea got much better. There are lots of other anti-nausea meds, and from what I've read here, it seems to take a few tries to get the right combo. For me, it was Emend and Zofran. I also smoked pot, but your mom probably won't go for that. :?
Diagnosed March, 2008
Stage IIIC
Colo-Anal Reconstructive Surgery April, 2008
Finished Folfox treatment November, 2008
NED! December 2008
NED! December 2011

Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be.
~Grandma Moses

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Re: When will my mom stop sleeping all day from chemo?

Postby Guest » Mon May 18, 2009 2:13 am

When I first started chemo my daughter made me a chart. I put stars for each day. It made me see that there was an end to this. However my cancer came back in 6 months and now I will be taking chemo for the rest of my life. I do get depressed at time but my grandbaby brings me out of it. I sometimes think that she is better for me than the chemo. I'm on reg. chemo plus a clinical trial. So far after 9 months of this things have been stable for me. I have a CAT scan every 8 weeks as per the clinical trial. My next one is on Wed. of this week. As far as sleeping, sometimes I sleep for 16 hours or more on the day after I get my pump taken off. It takes me about 4 days to feel half way normal again. Good luck to her and you and please let her sleep. Jan

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wwroam
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Re: When will my mom stop sleeping all day from chemo?

Postby wwroam » Mon May 18, 2009 2:50 pm

Though the accepted wisdom is that after the first it gets worse from then on, I found that the first was one of the worst and it actually got easier until after the tenth. I was 57 and had never been seriously ill in my life. That first cycle was a complete shock to the system. Maybe your mom will fit that pattern. After the 3rd , I had my dex cut back to 2 days from three and I found it to be an improvement. I was never nauseous, but I quickly learnt what smells to avoid. I am now 16 months out from chemo and the smell of fried food still turns my stomach.
Stage 3a DX 25/06/07
Folfox complete 30/01/08
7 years NED
Port scheduled for removal 8/02/10 Gone.
PSA .54 No prostate problems
Diagnosed Type 2 Diabetic
SO diagnosed CC Stage IV Liver Mets 23/03/15

ecowell
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Re: When will my mom stop sleeping all day from chemo?

Postby ecowell » Mon May 18, 2009 4:19 pm

Please be sure she is getting some gaterade. My life really came back to normal during chemo when I started replenshing my elyctrolyetes with gaterade. Use luke warm water if she is on oxciplatin. At least one a day, or more.
41 Mom of two, Dx 8 07 with 10 cm liver mets colon & liver tumors both resected in 2 08.
Chemo 7 08 new lung mets. 7 09 CEA climbed, slight growth in lungs 12 09 new met to liver, one lymph node, R hip, and L pelvis radiation & chemo


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