Chemo – a personal story

chemotherapy | help and info | Chris's experience

A few years ago, Chris was an ordinary teenager living an ordinary happy life. Then the unthinkable happened: Chris was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease, a form of cancer which affects the lymphatic system. What follows is a personal account of the events and emotions that followed, told in Chris's own words.

'My 17th birthday – a day to remember for all the wrong reasons! After what seemed an eternity between investigations and diagnosis, a programme of chemotherapy and radiotherapy was deemed to be the best course of action.

Plans for a night out with my mates were seriously scuppered – being connected to an intravenous infusion seriously affects the chances of pulling. More seriously, it dawned on me that I may not be immortal and the future seemed scary and uncertain. There's plenty of time for contemplation during a course of chemo.'

how does the chemo go in?

'Well in my case, it was like taking a handful of Smarties – there were pills of all shapes and colours! But that wasn't all – I had a drip as well. It's all right if you have veins that are easy to find, but when they're not, as in my case, the doctor has to locate one wherever he can.

First in the arm, no luck there. Let's try in the legs: right leg first, left leg second, no luck either.

And the bum is for injections against tetanus, no possibility in that area!

So where did they find it with me? It was in the back of my hand. Sounds scary, but once they find a suitable location, they stick to the same spot if possible. Now when I look at the back of my hands, I can't even imagine where they must have put the drip.'

any side effects?

'After the first 'dose' I developed kidney pain (renal colic) apparently caused by the demolition of the tumour. This was by far the worst aspect of the whole treatment, but it only happened once. The nausea and general feeling of being under the weather were manageable.

Then there was the problem with the shower: I got in as usual to clean off after a day at school, but when I started to shampoo my hair... it just fell out and blocked the plughole! It has since grown back of course, but it is not as red as it was before the treatment. Shame!

Hair loss for me personally wasn't really an issue because bald heads could be sported whether having chemo or not. Women however, don't really have this option, however, unless you're Sigourney Weaver. I think the NHS do a line in wigs but I've seen their glasses, I'd rather wear a hat. At 17 I was more bothered about losing my carefully cultivated pubes. When my hair started to fall out I just shaved it all off so it wasn't falling out. I was just bald which didn't seem so bad.

Among the cocktail of drugs I was plied with was one called Maxalon. This is designed to stop the nausea you get from the chemo, but its side effect was worse than the nausea for me. It's a bit hard to describe, but I couldn't decide what to do, where to sit, needing to sprint around and lie down or at the same time. It was rather unpleasant.

The consultant recognised the symptoms and stopped it. I had blamed this reaction on the chemo itself, so it highlighted the need for discussion with the doctor to determine the true culprit.

During treatment I sometimes listened to my walkman; it helped me to relax and pass the time, but I always had a member of my family (usually my mum) or a friend with me.'

how do you rate those treating you?

'The staff at the hospital were brilliant. They knew what they were doing, they understood the problems I was having, and though I was made to feel that I was the most important person that they were caring for, they were treating people like me every day of the week. Not necessarily with Hodgkin's disease, but everyone on that ward had some kind of cancer or tumour which the staff were treating to the very best of their ability.

One of the really nice things that came out of this was regarding my school. All the pupils were rooting for me, which helped me through the difficult days of chemo and radiotherapy. Plus, each year the school raises funds for a particular charity and that year we aimed to raise enough funds to buy a machine to dispense chemotherapy drugs and donated it to the hospital. Thanks to the efforts of my fellow pupils and teachers the hospital ended up with two!'

(May 2005)