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Chemotherapy Treatments

"How do chemotherapy treatments work?" This was the first question I had when my doctor told me I'd be undergoing a series of twelve chemo treatments. There are really two ways to answer this question:

  • What should I expect to happen during chemotherapy treaments?

and

  • How do chemotherapy drugs work? What actually happens inside my body to kill the cancer?

We'll answer those questions here. I'll also give you some chemotherapy survival tips and address side effects of chemo.


Chemotherapy Treatments
Every person's experience will be slightly different, but there are common elements you can expect will happen when you go to chemotherapy treatments. For example, you will spend a lot of time sitting. You will get poked by at least one needle. And you will be really glad when the oncology nurse tells you that you can go home. To get the full story on what to expect when you go in for a chemotherapy treatment, click here.


Chemotherapy Drugs
Did you know that chemotherapy drugs are actually poisons? For example, mustargen, a chemo drug used to treat various forms of lymphoma cancers, is actually the mustard gas used by the German army in World War I. It's amazing to me that scientists have been able to figure out ways to successfully combat various cancers by using the same agents used in chemical warefare. The same chemicals that can kill people can also save their lives! Crazy!

So how does chemotherapy work once it's inside your body? It's all about the cells. Your body is made up of more than 200 different types of cells. Scientists have been able to figure out how different types of cells respond to the things that we put in our bodies - food, alcohol, and chemotherapy drugs to name a few! When chemo enters your body, it kills cells - both cancer cells and healthy cells. That's the short explanation. If you want to learn more about how chemotherapy drugs kill cancer cells, click here.


Chemotherapy Survival Tips
I never looked forward to chemotherapy treatments, but I did find ways to make them a little more bearable. Here are my chemotherapy survival tips:
  • Since you're going to be doing a lot of sitting (in the waiting room before the treatment and in a chair during the actual treatment), come prepared. Bring books, magazines, your journal, whatever. Many treatment facilities have TVs in them, but you never know what the other people there will be watching - if you're not a big fan of Full House reruns, you'll be glad to have something else to keep you occupied during the treatment.


  • On the same token, you may get lucky and either have your own treatment room with a TV or be the first one in the room and get to decide what channel to watch. I fell in love with a show called "Cash Cab" on the Discovery Channel while I was going through chemo treatments. I always got so excited when I got to watch Cash Cab!


  • Bring someone with you to the treatment - and don't think it always has to be the same person. My mom and boyfriend came with me to the first couple of treatments, but since I was already spending a lot of time with both of them each and every day, we didn't have a whole lot to talk about to pass the time during the treatment.

    For the rest of my treatments, I invited other people to come along with me to the treatments - close friends, my aunt, my sister. I really enjoyed having them come along because:

    1. I didn't see these people on an everyday basis so we had things to talk about to pass the time.

    2. This gave them the opportunity to do something to support me. People are always asking if there's any way they can help you when you have cancer - you might as well take some of them up on their offers!

    A word of warning about the people you bring along for your chemotherapy treatment: make sure both you and the person you want to bring are comfortable with the notion that there's a good chance you may "get sick" during the treatment. You may or you may not, but it's best to be prepared - there are some people that just can't stomach seeing someone else lose their lunch.


Side Effects of Chemo
There are many different side effects that you may experience. Here are a few of the most common side effects of chemo:


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