Working while on Chemotherapy

I am working with people as well. I have worked through both of my chemos fine.

Granted sometimes it could get difficult - once I had to apologise , leave the patient with the nurse , go to toilet, had a bout of diarrhoea, throwing up , returning and finishing the work. Happened that bad only once.

Hi Vilma, I have been working on treatment since stage 4 diagnosis, over 5 years. I have had a heavy tumor burden in bones and liver since day 1. I have been on various treatments - hormone therapy, target therapy and chemo but mostly have been on one chemo or another the majority of that time. I have continued to work at a very demanding, high pressure job. Nice to spend time thinking about something besides cancer. I do feel tired sometimes but the job is not physically demanding as I am at a desk most of the day. It is mentally very demanding though. Honestly, I have a harder time once I get home as I have a little one to keep up with. Much more physically demanding than work. I was diagnosed with mets while pregnant and my son is now 5.

I have been really careful over the years and use hand sanitizer throughout the day, wash my hands often, try to stay away from sick people and try to avoid sharing food, beverages, etc. I haven't found that I have become sick more often since being on chemos and targeted therapies that tank white bloods cell and neutrophil counts. The only exceptions to that are that when on Abraxane I did develop shingles which was strange. I was 39 or 40 years old, had never had it before and was not a likely candidate. However, I haven't had issues with it since. The other exception is that the last two years, I have become sick after having the flu vaccine or this past year I had both the flu and pneumonia vaccine at the same time. I had what seemed like a rough respiratory infection and/or the flu for a good 5-7 days. Very uncharacteristic for me and knocked me out more than usual. Not sure if it was an over-reaction to the vaccine or a secondary infection when my immune system was busy reacting to the vaccine. However, I didn't get the flu during the year for the last two years after taking the vaccine. With social distancing now, people wearing masks and gloves and being very conscious of spreading infection, it may be easier in a way to deal with the risks associated with your social work job. Of course, coronavirus is a scary risk for all of us but the social distancing does have an additional benefit in that it should help prevent the flu, colds and other ordinary infections also.

Not only did I work through it, but none of my coworkers even knew. I worked a half day in the morning and had my infusion in the afternoon. I was right back to work the next morning. I was tired as the steroids wore off, but I knew for me, it would have been 100x worse if I didn’t continue to work. Was the only “normal” thing about that entire period of my life