Do you regret doing Chemo?

Artista964

i dont see why you cant ask for taxol. They are both taxanes. I had taxotere and all my hair came back curlier. Looks better than pre chemo.

Zenmushroom

So far, no regrets. In the midst of chemo right now. I had no choice since I'm Her2+. Yes, chemo sucks. But honestly it's really not as bad as I thought. From all the horror stories I read on the internet I thought I'd be walking around feeling half-dead all the time. But that hasn't been the case for me. Maybe it's because I'm young though (30 years old). My AC infusions were once every three weeks. The week of the infusion I felt like crap. But then the following two weeks I felt like my normal self. During taxol hasn't been too bad. I wear ice gloves and slippers and so far that has prevented any neuropathy (knock on wood). Had some slight pain, but it's only like a 2 on the pain scale. Almost no chemo brain. I forget doctor appointments sometimes, and once I completely forgot the name of the place my boyfriend works. But aside from that, I've been my normal self. I write html and edit/write political articles for a non-profit, and have still been able to do that just fine. Only major issue is that my liver enzymes are now elevated, so they actually took me off chemo until I get better. But I think that shows that the doctors are usually very careful with you. They do blood tests before every chemo to see how you're doing. And if the chemo looks like it's going to do some long-term damage to your organs, they generally take you off of it.

Even though it's been hard, I feel like I made the right choice because I'm doing everything in my power to prevent this cancer from coming back. People who say that chemo does nothing have no idea what they're talking about. Doctors give you their recommendation to do chemo based on a huge body of medical literature and studies that have been accumulated over a long period of time. Cancer is a very complicated and deadly disease. Eating healthy is not a guarantee that you'll beat the chemo. Plenty of healthy people still get cancer. And anecdotes on the internet are not proof that this can work. Medical knowledge is based on hundreds of studies that have been done on the matter, and evaluating thousands of people over the course of decades. Bob's blog on how he shoved coffee enemas up his butt and cured cancer is not on par with that.

Listen to your doctor. They don't have a PHD for nothing.

If you want to prevent side effects, drink lots of water and exercise during the chemo. My only regret is that I didn't drink enough water, which might have helped with my liver situation.

Zenmushroom

If you are afraid of doing taxotere, can you request the AC + T regimen instead? AC was a bitch for me because of nausea, but I'm the kind of person who gets nauseous really easily. Just swimming in the ocean makes me nauseous. So I was doomed. But for most people, the nausea meds work just fine.