Chemo?

[trlcavscout]

So my mom was diagnosed with small cell lung and lymph node(spell check) cancer last week. She goes in tomorrow to have some gizmo put in so she can start chemo next monday. I dont have any first hand experience with this so my first question is will she be able to drive herself to and from chemo? I didnt think so but I am no doctor. She lives in Cheyenne and her husband is an over the road truck driver who cant quite his job for a local one because they need the insurance. She has been driving down here to the fort to take care of my grandpa (her dad) who also has lung cancer so I am gonna be picking up slack their also. But only haveing one car and my wife working the days I am off is gonna be rough if I am driving to cheyenne all the time to. I guess 60 + years of smoking caught up to him like 35 years of it did her. But after storming the beach and 60 + years of smoking and drinking grandpa is doing pretty good for his age!

[theGinsue]

Dude, I terribly sorry to hear all of this.

I don't have first hand experience or even immediate second hand experience dealing with chemo, but from what I understand the treatments are ROUGH and your mom will probably be in absolutely no condition to drive herself (in fact, I'd be surprised if the hospital would discharge her [even for outpatient care] without someone there to drive her home).

[Irving]

I think my mom had to drive her best friend to a lot of her treatments. I'll ask her tomorrow for you.

[Jmetz]

Check out (or have your mom check out) The Gerson Therapy. My brother was told he would have to be on 2 medications for the rest of his life and had been taking them for years. He has been doing a mild approach to this for a month and has been off the meds for 2 weeks.

[Geardo]

Chemo drains people of all energy, in short she will not be able to drive to and from solo. Sorry to hear the news, i know all to well how it is to have parents with cancer. Thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.

[djjames]

Tough news man. She's definitely going to need a driver. Having worked in healthcare for a long time I've seen this way too much.

1. Plan on 2 days of rest. Day of and day after.
2. Plan on someone (if you can't do it) being able to help her with day to day stuff for the same amount of time.
3. Also, if she hasn't done it yet...make a list of all her medications with frequency, dose, name (you'd be surprised..."it's that blue pill"), and why she takes it

Is she having a port placed? Also, depending on how far something like this has progressed is how they'll treat it. Chemo runs in cycles. 1 week on, 3 weeks off....for example.

****KEEP BILLING STATEMENTS FROM INSURANCE, AND ALWAYS TRY TO GET COPIES OF VISITS, PROCEDURES, ETC****

Good luck

[funkfool]

Hang in there... my pa went though it for 7 years... ureter/stomach.

[Bailey Guns]

Wow...sorry to hear about all that. Best wishes to your mom and family.

[SA Friday]

My wife went through four months of cyclophosphimide (nitrogen mustard, the basic chemo) treatmwnts to suppress her lupus. Hers was once a month, and most of the cancer patients were on a much more aggressive schedule than that.

She will be in no condition to drive home. The anti nausia medication they use right before chemo is super strong and made my wife loopie after about an hour or two. My wife couldn't take pills either from infusion to about day three. She puked immediatly. Suppositories took almost 4 hours sometimes 6 to kick in. I ended up getting trained and giving her inner-muscular shots of phenagren every 8 hours for two to three days after the treatments.

Everyone is different during chemo treatment, but you can pretty much bet on her not being in any condition to drive after treatments for at the very least two days. You might be better off planning for her to stay with you or someone else at least during treatments and a couple of days after.

[Glock Shooter]

PM sent. Keep the faith, she'll get through this.

[trlcavscout]

Tough news man. She's definitely going to need a driver. Having worked in healthcare for a long time I've seen this way too much.

1. Plan on 2 days of rest. Day of and day after.
2. Plan on someone (if you can't do it) being able to help her with day to day stuff for the same amount of time.
3. Also, if she hasn't done it yet...make a list of all her medications with frequency, dose, name (you'd be surprised..."it's that blue pill"), and why she takes it

Is she having a port placed? Also, depending on how far something like this has progressed is how they'll treat it. Chemo runs in cycles. 1 week on, 3 weeks off....for example.

****KEEP BILLING STATEMENTS FROM INSURANCE, AND ALWAYS TRY TO GET COPIES OF VISITS, PROCEDURES, ETC****

Good luck

I think it is a port they are doing today. We had family in town this weekend and thats when my mom told us all. So it was hard to see family, get instructions for grandpas doctor visists and her info while watching to kids. My 88 year old grandpa with cancer and other health problems now has a hernia and he is really miserable!

[Mazin]

Thoughts and prayers for your mom, +1 on keeping the faith!

[Sixgun]

I've been going through this for 16 months with my wife(38yrs old). YES, someone has to drive her to and from chemo. Mainly for support and she will be tired. Cancer Sucks and it' s a long hard battle.
Sorry another person is going through this.

[BlasterBob]

Well, I can truthfully say that I have gone through chemo myself. Had a bout with cancer (called Clear Cell Sarcome). The rather unpleasant chemo that I received was Adriamycin and Cytoxin. Kinda unpleasant yes, but they did the trick. Got them some years ago when they were still in the experimental stage and the main Doc in charge did inform me that they were still working on various size doses and there was a possibility (at that time of the experimental stage) that I could die while receiving a dose that was possibly too much for me. Hey, I made it OK. I would get these two chemos at 3PM and I could count on throwing up at 6PM almost exactly three hours later. The next day there was the nausea but was very tolerable. The second day was much better and on the third day I was back to work (indoor office work). Mine were given every fourth Friday for five months. I received a large dosage but the normal dosage (at that time) was taken over an eight months period. Lost almost all body hair but that did not bother most guys. The women had a tough time with that loss.
You won't want her to have to drive for four of five days and she'll most likely do a lot of sleeping/resting and just laying around for those four or five days. Appetite will probably be almost nonexistent for the first few days too. At the time of getting that stuff it was a little rough by I'd do it all over again to be able to add some time to my life. Oh yeah, I had my bout with this stuff exactly 30 years ago this coming December. Won't ever forget all those treatments (surgery, radiation and chemo) and it seems like just yesterday that I went through it all. Thinking back now, none of it was really very bad perhaps because I always expected the worse and it never got anywhere near that bad.
Of course, now I'm undergoing treatment again but this time for prostate cancer but I'm sure I'll be here for a few more years to continue slinging lead down range.
The biggest recommendation that I can make is for all you guys 35 years of age and older, GET A DRE (digital rectal exam) AND PSA TEST ON AN ANNUAL BASIS. It can save your life - I know.
SORRY FOR THE LENGTH OF THIS POST. I get kinda carried away when talking about this stuff.

[40SWMike]

Will be praying for you and your Mom and Grandpa. Chemo affects everyone different, depends on what drugs are used. Plan on driving her. I had Cytoxin (Cyclophosphamide) IVs for 17 years to suppress my immune system because of CIDP. God Bless you and your family

[Mtn.man]

My step mom went thru it, she was mad because they wouldn't let her drive.
She also had to stay in a couple times, that went over well too.

Hang tuff.

[FireMoth]

Even the light weight chemo drugs they had me on would fuck me up for a minimum of 6 hours. At best it was like having a very serious flu, and trying to fight it with way too much cold medication.

Everybody reacts differently, but definitely make plans for assistance. Miost doctors wont administer or release if they dont confirm that they are turning a patient over to someones care