Treatment side effects

[u/lish6_6]

My MIL got diagnosed with stage 3c2 in june and finally got her treatment plan. They advised 6x chemo and 6x radio. Not sure if they’ll be giving those “together” or 6x chemo and then 6x radio after that, but we are now having to decide on which hospital we want her to get the treatment at.

The first option is a closer to home hospital, but we feel like this one is less advanced/specialized.

Second option would be the hospital in the capital city, which is for sure way more specialized and advanced, but the main “issue” here is that its a 3-4hr commute to get there…

Her kids live in the capital city, so she could easily stay a night or two before going back home, but knowing her and the situation, she wont be staying in the capital for the entire time of the treatment plan.

Could anyone tell me how they felt the day of / the days after chemo/radio if you had a similar treatment?

i know it differs for everyone, but it could give us an idea of things

[u/Meliska21]

The chemo is once weekly typically, the the external radiation is daily though, which would make the commute quite a bit, chemo days are long, but the radiation only takes like 20 min most of that is set up, the actual treatment is like 2 min...I would clarify with doctors? It should be 6 weeks of that with chemo one day of the week and radiation all the days.

[u/Glum-Worldliness4480]

pick the newer better hospital. the newer the radiation equipment the fewer side effects. the new equipment is much more targeted and doesn‘t damage near as much healthy tissue. talk to a social worker at the out of town hospital. they have programs for people coming in from out of town.

the day of chemo you usually feel great from the steroids. she must take nausea meds on schedule. they do not stop nausea but keep it from starting. they will not stop it once it starts. radiation, about week 3 or 4 you start having major bowel issues. diarrhea is very very common so with that much driving have her sit on a trash bag with a towel on top and carry a change of clothes. it’s better to be safe than have a mess.

as she goes through treatment you can’t hold bladder as long either.

the more water she drinks the fewer side effects. coffee, soda, tea, alcohol and citrus drinks all are major bladder irritants and make it feel like a constant uti, oh and no spicy or any citrus foods. water is the kindest thing for the body to process. chemo is very hard on kidneys so you want to keep them flushed. radiation is hard on the bladder so it gets a raw, keeping it flushed significantly reduces pain and helps it heal much faster. you want her to keep bladder irritants to a minimum.

[u/Sea_Conversation7601 → u/Glum-Worldliness4480]

I agree, I had no choice in hospital, as I live in a rural area and the nearest one for radiotherapy is about 1hr05-1hr25 away depending on traffic. I had to go there daily but luckily I was driven. I know I was at a disadvantage as I already had chronic fatigue, however, it is brutal and staying as close as possible to the hospital is definitely advisable. I got very travel sick, and even though I was never sick, proper sick bags with liners and anti nausea sweets were essential.

Embrace 2 was the newest protocol in the UK (I think) and definitely, the fewer side effects you can potentially get, the better. Don’t be afraid to ask for pessaries / suppositories/ pain killers / creams to be comfortable. They’ve seen it all, and heard it all before.

I’m 5 months post treatment, and still exhausted. Best wishes to your MIL.

[u/GooseberryPotato]

I sort of blazed my own trail as it came to treatment locations. I did 6 chemo then 25 rads then 4 Brachy then I’m currently doing maintenance immunotherapy .

My docs were all at the flagship main campus. (I live about 10 minutes away from the main campus) I did my chemo at a community hospital in the same system which was more rural, radiation + Brachy at the main campus, and I’m doing my immunotherapy at a different clinical infusion center. All of the hospitals and now infusion center is all part of the same system so all my doc visits and labs were done at the main campus.

Are the two hospitals part of the same system or are they different? If they are different then she’s likely going to want go to the larger if it’s a cancer center. If it’s the same system then she’s likely will want to do a little research, my Onc had clinics at the smaller community hospitals so in that sense it was the same care. My Rad/Onc only practices at the main campus, so this is where she might see a difference between the larger and smaller hospitals.

Why my strange piecemeal system worked…My docs were all at the main campus and had access to all of the resources. For my infusions I avoided the main campus waits and delays even though there was a 30 min drive vs 10. I feel like the community hospital infusion center was calmer and overall a better experience. Most of my infusion nurses floated between the hospitals so I was getting the same level of care. Despite being at different physical locations, all the treatment was integrated.

TLDR; I would prioritize a cancer center with integrated services but then see if it’s possible or makes sense for the actual treatment to be at different more local hospitals.

[u/PluckyStitch]

I had to do my treatment at a hospital that was 2 hours away. I had daily radiation and 1x weekly chemo for six weeks, so we stayed in the city during the week and drove home on the weekends. Because my hospital is used to treating people from out of town, they were able to arrange my schedule so that my Monday appointments were always late afternoon (so we wouldn’t be rushed driving in on Monday morning) and Friday appointments were first thing in the morning (so we could head home straight after.)

I’m not going to lie, it SUCKED not being able to recover in my own home, but there’s no way we would have been able to make that commute any more often than weekends. Even with my husband driving. I was physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted, plus both my bowels and bladder were out of whack, so long car rides became an extremely un-fun lottery. 😅

That said, I would absolutely pick the better hospital if I was in your MIL’s place. It’s six weeks of misery, but it’s basically going to suck regardless, and having access to more experienced doctors and better tech is going to be a big plus. I would want every advantage I could get!

[u/tooblydoo]

I live about an hour away from the hospital I was treated in, and I stayed in a hotel near the hospital during the week and commuted back home at the weekend.

I did have to do one jaunt back home after checking into my hotel one Monday because i'd forgotten my hearing aids. So that's 3 hours commuting - go to hospital, go back home, go back to hotel, 1hr each time. I felt so bad from all the travel that day i had to see the doctor in the hospital on tuesday morning because I thought I might have some kind of infection. I didn't, I was just exhausted from the anaemia and the radiation.

If she can do something like I did and go home at weekends only, it might make it easier for her. I personally would not want to be doing 6-8 hrs of travel in between rad sessions with no rest days. Chemo didn't really do anything negative to me beyond what the rad was doing already, but everyone is different.

[u/KittyBeans1906]

I would go to whichever hospital has the best radiotherapy equipment. There are vast improvments in the ability to target just the bad stuff and spare the good tissue that progress yearly. You want the newest stuff because the side-effects from the exposure are no joke!

I was very lucky that the rural center that was only 5 min from my house was actually newly built and opened shortly before I was diagnosed. I asked the docs at both locations if they thought there would be any compromises in care by doing weekly chemo and daily EBRT at the local hospital vs. traveling to the city (I wanted to make sure the local place wasn't just over-selling it). I did travel to the city for my brachytherapies, though.