Update On Friend

[jennyjoan]

She got home yesterday after a palaver of everything.

Got hair shaved off some time ago - now has been told she will NOT be undergoing any more chemotherapy ever as she is allergic.

In a terrible rash which has to be creamed and creamed - so cream is coming through clothes and onto furniture etc etc and very uncomfortable.

Very angry re hair loss as it was unnecessary.

Do they know what they are doing.

[TheChair]

Cancer treatment is not an exact science. What works for some doesn't work for others. Blaming the doctors doesn't get you anywhere.
My wife had Chemo for lung cancer for six months, without a good result, but no hair loss.
Then they changed to a different therapy. Most of her hair fell out and her nails turned brown, and started to fall out, but at least the tumours started to reduce. When they paused the therapy, the cancer rapidly spread all over her body, and to her brain. We thought she had a couple of weeks at most.
Then they started immunotherapy. This requires a round trip of 300 miles and an overnight stay every two weeks, but within a very short time, all of her tumours started to shrink. She no longer needs painkillers (she was on Fentanyl patches, topped up with codeine tablets), and her hair is growing again.

All you can ever do is hope.

[ummmm]

TheChair....that must have been an awful time :-(

My aunt had breast cancer, in her 40's, chemo worked and had no side effects. It was the radiation therapy that wiped her out. She could barely get out of bed.

Happy to say she is now 50 and perfectly healthy.

Cancer doesn't discriminate. My aunt has always been a fitness fanatic, eats healthy, exercises daily....

[murraymints]

dad had both chemo and radiotherapy..had no hair loss but killed his immunity and suffered infections thereafter...cotton long sleeved vests and long johns might help keep the cream contained..hope she feels better soon

[waterboatman]

You have my sympathy TC. My Vera had breast cancer twice, the second one a secondary to the one she'd had 16 years before. It was in both lungs, her ribs, spine and scull. The chemo was vicious on both occasions, causing hair loss and nausea, to name but two.

Being a secondary to the first cancer there is no cure, only try and slow it down as much as possible. She fought it bravely and never complained. Not once. She eventually decided enough was enough. I agreed with her as she has suffered mare than anyone should have to.

It's a vicious illness an d is indiscriminate.

She lost her long and brave fight in October 2011, after we were told in February she only had weeks.

[DTCwordfan]

sometimes you wonder as a friend of mine underwent a simple treatment to keep it - and she did, though a little fuzzy and lost its sheen during the chemo. Each time she visited, she began with 45 minutes with her scalp immersed in a bucket of ice.....agony she said and worse than the chemo but, as it worked, it was worth it.

[Cloverjo]

I believe the doctors do all they can to help patients with cancer, jennyjoan. Cancer is a terrible illness, as others have said. I hope your friend recovers.