Medication Info

As promised here is the information regarding the type of chemo I am on and the medications used to help fight the nausea. I am hoping that the information I provide here will help someone out there in some way.

Chemotherapy Medication

Doxorubicin ("docs-oh-rube-i-sin) or Adriamycin

This is a red coloured solution for injection into the bloodstream. It's used to treat cancers of the breast, lung, bladder, endometrium, uterus and lyphomas. It is injected over a few minutes by the chemotherapy nurse. This process takes about 20 minutes.

Cyclophosphamide I.V. (sigh-clo-fos-fa-mide) or Cytoxan or Procytox

This is a clear solution for injection into the bloodstream. It is used to treat cancers of the breast, ovaries and lung, as well as lymphomas. It's important to have plenty of fluids before and after this treatment to avoid bladder problems. It's recommended to start before treatment for a total of 2-3 days to ensure you pass a lot of urine. This drug is hard on the bladder. This treatment takes about 20 minutes.

Anti-Nausea Medication

Granisetron (gran-iss-eh-tron) or Kytril

Dexamethasone (dex-a-meth-a-sone)

Prochlorperazine (pro-klor-pare-a-zeen) or Stemetil or Apo-Prochlorazine or Nu-Prochlorazine (my "as needed" pills).

My body has never been through so many drugs in my existence. I usually do not take a pill for a headache so you can imagine the shock my body is going through. Another affect of the chemotherapy is taking place now. My periods have stopped. My cycle should have started on March 1st and now it's the 6th and nothing so far. I'm feeling the odd hot flash that doesn't last long thank goodness. Oh joy. I've also noticed the past few days that I'm very moody. I haven't been a nice person so I'm trying at the moment to control that through relaxation and meditation.

Due to the way I have been feeling the past few days I started to think about something my nautropath said to me before I started chemo. He didn't mean it in a way to upset me but was merely making a true statement. I didn't take it the wrong way either. He said that chemo means the body is dying, I am right now going through a kind of "death". Again, this didn't upset me because it's true. My cells, both good and bad are dying. We are made up of cells. Some days I do feel like I am dying. I cannot describe to you why I say this or how it feels. It's more of my instincts kicking in again. So in my current state of dying (I do not mean this in a negative way but rather a renewal) I become a little philosophical about life and what I need to do for the new me that awaits in the summer. There is no need to become alarmed by what I've written I'm still positive it's just that the physical side is feeling tired. It's still all good when you think of the end results.