Hi Melanie,
My husband was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer 5 months ago. Non small cell. He has just finished 4 cycles of chemo (pemetrexed) and is currently on a break from treatment. The chemo was once every 3 weeks via a drip, a couple of hours in the chemo suite at the hospital and then he could go home.
The main side effects my husband experienced/ is still experiencing now (1 month after the last cycle) are: exhaustion, fatigue, nausea (but no vomiting), diahorrea, lack of appetite, loss of facial hair (eyebrows), pulmonary embolism (blood clots) requiring him to be on daily injected blood thinners (people with cancer are at high risk for blood clots, people with NSC adenocarcinoma are higher risk, and then if you do chemo the risk increases again.) He had neutropenia once, when he caught a cold in the middle of the chemo cycle when he had no white cells. He was in hospital for 5 days.
Chemo is "cumulative"- so some symptoms have only appeared after he finished the fourth cycle- dark spots on his toenails (we have been told that they may fall off but should grow back), loss of body hair. He lost all the hair on his head when he did whole brain radiation a few months ago.
The doctors want him to go on "maintenance" chemo now to stop it spreading. The maintenance chemo will be for the next year, or "as long as it keeps working". We will consider doing this if the cancer starts to spread. In the meantime, we are having regular tests and scans to keep an eye on what is happening.
I am not sure what advice you were after, Melanie. My husband has sees a homeopath and a naturopath for help with symptom management and diet and an acupuncturist for help with the nausea. Having said that, we also contact the doctor, the palliative care team and the Silver Chain nurses for the same issues. We try everything.
There are a great deal of supplements that are recommended for cancer and are worth trying (with guidance from someone trained in this area.) It is good to make contact with a complementary health professional (eg naturopath) before you start chemo and find someone that you trust who can support you through the treatment and help with anything that comes up.
We also follow Ian Gawler who has written books on surviving cancer: http://www.iangawler.com/
If there are any cancer council support groups/services in your area, give them a go. Hopefully you would have been in contact with the cancer council coordinator who can put you on to what is available- free counselling, Solaris treatments, Chemo Club, support group meetings, free yoga sessions, free social workers, free financial counsellors, lawyers, etc.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
xxx Symphony
