A Bit of My Life » Chemotherapy Side Effects

Chemotherapy Side Effects

A play by play explanation

(This article is by Wes Clark, my guy and cancer survivor. This article was written when he was diagnosed a few years ago - after chemo and surgery, he has been cancer free for two years now; I’ve merely cleaned it up for spelling and grammar).

The Cancer I have is Germ Cell Cancer in my mediastinum which is in my chest, behind my breastbone. The tumour was discovered as one large mass although it is actually comprised of multiple tumour types. Any tumour over a certain size (and I’m not sure what that size is) is comprised of multiple forms of the same cancer.

As of now, Sept. 5 2005 - I personally believe the tumour is dead. This type of cancer creates tumours that give off hormones, or what they call ‘Tumour Markers’. They are identical to the hormones released in a woman during pregnancy - so I can accurately say, “I’ve been pregnant”. My boobies didn’t grow though :(.
Those two hormones are referred to as AFP (Alpha Fetal Protein) and hCG. My AFP Levels pre-treatment were 3496 and hCG was 356. Ridiculously high tumour marker levels. I would have tested positive on any pregnancy test. After only one session they dropped to approximately 1000 and 100 respectively. Before Session 3 the hCG was immeasurably low or non-existent and AFP was at 40. Normal for a male is less than 10.

The standard treatment is 4 Sessions of Chemotherapy. Each Session is 3 weeks in total. In week 1, I get 5 hours of injections through an IV for 5 days (Monday to Friday). In Week Two I get a single injection, in week three I get a single injection and an end-of-week x-ray plus full blood tests to track the progress of that Session.

I also get a blood test every Monday. Every Monday I also receive a Bleomycin injection. In the first week everyday I receive Etoposide and Cisplatin (which is platinum). The total amount varies from person to person and is based on the doctors assessment plus their total body surface area. Mine is approximately 2 square meters which is kind of large. I receive Dexamethazone (a steroid) and Granisitron (anti-emetic drug to prevent nausea) everyday I receive Cisplatin and for an additional three days after receiving my last cisplatin injection. That’s a lot of drugs!

I also get severely constipated from the injections so I have a stool softener and ‘Senecal’ - a laxative to take as needed. The Cisplatin attacks fast growing cells in my entire body, so it causes nausea (although I haven’t had nausea with one exception) and can cause diarrhea (which I’ve had) from degrading the intestinal lining. That’s right, it both constipates me and makes me shit liquid.

I was also receiving Stimitil (prochlorperizine), another anti-emetic drug. I had a side effect that I really disliked (lock-jaw) and had experienced no nausea at all - so that drug was discontinued.

Out of all of these drugs, the number of side effects you could experience are phenomenal. Just to give you an idea, Stimitil alone has a list of 16 known side-effects categorized by how common or likely they are to be experienced. Lock Jaw, which I experienced - isn’t listed. Although similar side effects are.

Generally speaking, that is — talking about my own experiences going through chemotherapy verses what you would experience going through chemotherapy on the same drugs and same treatment schedule isn’t going to lay it all out for you. If anything you will have a very different experience depending on:

The randomness of drug interaction with you personally
The exact drugs and quantities of drugs you’ll be on
How well you react to those drugs

Unfortunately Chemotherapy and how exactly it will affect you is a big unknown. The bottom line is a) Germ Cell Cancer is highly treatable compared to other forms of cancer and b) If you’re prepared to experience what I’ve experienced, you’ll be on the right track when instead you experience something slightly different or who knows, maybe you’ll win the lottery and go through my experience to the letter.

Generally speaking I’ve had a ridiculously easy time with Cancer, but here’s a time line of the side-effects I’ve personally experienced:

Session 1:

Tired at random, but less tired than before beginning Chemo - the Hormones were really fucking with me pre-treatment
Unbelievable appetite, food tasted incredible
Horrible taste in my mouth from Cisplatin, I know what platinum tastes like.
Bleomycin made my phlegm taste like plastic for a couple days after injection
Constipation - I was constipated before treatment and during. The laxatives really came in handy.
Slightly Confused after: Bleomycin injections on Monday.
Lock Jaw: Result of Stimitil. I would be talking and then have to stop, move my jaw around so I could remember how to use it and begin talking again.
Pain in my ribs - I would wake up with serious pain in my ribs, more than likely not a drug side-effect but a result of the tumour shrinking in my chest. Pain disappeared within 20 seconds
Tingling in my testicles - Dexamethazone when injected and when I took the pills appeared to cause a really mild version of ‘blue-balls’ lasting for 5 to 10 minutes. Did not always cause this, appeared to occur randomly.
Hair-Loss: Lost my pubic hair first Sunday after the solid first week of injections. Hair on my head began falling out the following Monday night. Hair left on head was easy to pull out, but felt like bristles in my head when touched.
Red Face - Dexamethazone caused my face to look red
Mood Swings - Dexamethazone plus who knows what else caused me to have severe mood swings at random. At first I thought I was mad for valid reasons but later learned to spot when the mood swings were drug induced
Pressure in my chest - report any pressure in your own chest to your doctor, but with me the tumour shrinking could be felt. It just felt like someone lightly pressing on my breast-bone.
Sleeplessness from Dexamethazone
Pimple break-outs that would go away before end of session

Session 2:

Tired at Random, particularly on Saturday and Sunday the weekend before the end of session
Unbelievable Appetite, food tasted incredible
Cisplatin caused gross platinum taste in my mouth
Bleomycin made my phlegm taste like plastic
Constipation
Severe Diarrhea - I was told to take Immodium and the initial dose solved the problem immediately
Hip Pain: I experienced pain in both hips, symmetrically for one day. It just came on and then disappeared. Had trouble walking, only took an Extra Strength Tylenol to relieve the pain.
Less frequent and less severe rib pain disappearing quickly
A Bruise Appeared on my left index finger middle-knuckle. It actually appeared to be two bruises side by side. The bruises turned into a hardened callus. My doctor could not explain it, I don’t remember hurting my hand at all.
Mood swings became shorter lived - I could get angry or cry but only for 5 to 10 seconds before realizing I wasn’t really angry or sad. Started warning people after a 5 second outburst that I was angry from the drugs and I needed another couple minutes to calm down. This worked well to preserve my relationships.
Sleeplessness from Dexamethazone
Severe fever of 39.4 three hours after second Bleomycin injection, two extra strength Tylenol cured the fever

Session 3:

Confusion after Bleomycin Injections.
Sleeplessness from Dexamethazone
Unbelievable appetite
Bad taste was less severe after Cisplatin and Bleomycin
Mood Swings from Dexamethasone were very easy to recognize and for the most part were much less frequent. Crying for only a couple seconds at a time was common, but I often cried over things I liked such as ‘little acorns’ by the white stripes or when I heard ‘don’t fear the reaper’.
Pressure on my chest more severe plus a very strange feeling of ‘bubbling’. An image of a piece of coral rock with bubbles coming out of it and chunks breaking off kept going through my head, over and over the Monday after my solid week of injections. Could not sleep. Really grossed me out - woke up with …
Pain in my ankles - turned into …
Severe pain in my knees, plus lighter pain in my elbows, ankles and wrists. Explained to be gout-like-symptoms as a result of tumour break-up. A very good sign, but the worst pain I’ve ever experienced in my life. Had to take Neproxin, Prednasone and Perkocets for a full day and a half. Pain recurred less severe in small amounts at later days.
Pimple Break-Outs
Painful Thumb-Nails: For the first time, both my thumb-nails feel bruised like I hit them with a hammer or something. No other fingers hurt - no visible bruises.
Perkocets [oxycocet]
- Don’t believe the hype! Perkocets were fun for about two hours, then they made me severely emotional and I felt genuinely depressed while on them and for a full day after I discontinued taking them. I cried a lot. The next day - felt fine.
- The combination of Perkocets, Prednasone and Neproxin — or maybe just one of them, made me vomit what must have been at least five litres of liquid and chinese food noodles I had been acquiring for the entire day I was on these new anti-gout-like-symptom drugs.
Severe Tiredness: The weekend before my last week of this session (which is where I am as of writing this)

I hope I didn’t miss any, but this staggering list of side-effects are written by someone that feels they’ve had a really really easy time with Chemotherapy. That’s the truth, almost nothing on this list with the exception of what I’ve endured this session was really even a big distraction to my life. I’ve had the chance to do tonnes of things I couldn’t do working a 9 to 5 and I got to combat the bad taste in my mouth by eating. How awesome is that? Be like the squirrel girl, be like the squirrel.