Will side effects from chemo start the first day after treatment?

SuckItCancer

Or is it delayed? I've talked to a couple of people that said they were getting sick even on the way home from the first treatment. Then others have said they didn't feel anything for a few days. Is it always this much all over the place with side effects?

JaneA

It depends on the chemo type. If you know the names of your chemo, look them up on ChemoCare.com. This website is free and my chemo center printed all of my information out from this website. Best wishes for treatment success.

Bengal

I found, mostly because of the other drugs given at the time of Chemo to alleviate nausea etc..., that is was usually the second day that the side effects hit me hard. There's no one size fits all. Depends on the type of Chemo and how your body reacts to it. Hopefully, in your case, it won't be too bad. I usually could count on three or four bad days every week but also three or four days when I felt pretty good and was able to function at a pretty normal level.

BuckeyeShelby

I agree, it depends on the type of chemo and your own personal reaction to it. You won't get the entire list of potential side effects. Throughout the entire course, my bad day was not the day after, it was 2 days after. And that DID start after my first time in the chemo chair. Other things, like peripheral neuropathy, occur gradually.

cllinda

I remember that chemo was on Wednesdays and I would be ok until Friday or saturday. Then it would kick in. And when I was on Herself in only, I would have it on Wednesday and have a terrible headache for the weekend.

LiveWithCancer

I felt great the day I got the chemo and I felt okay the following day. The next two days for me were horrible. I couldn't eat, drink, or get out of bed except to go vomit. You always knew when I was feeling better because I always wanted to go to Furrs Cafeteria for roast beef (go figure).

Chemo was horrific for me, but the horror was really only a couple or three days out of every three week period. I could maintain some sort of lifestyle the remaining days.

The anti-nausea pills did absolutely nothing for me. We tried several different ones. We also tried increasing steroids, also to no effect. I was able to work through the fatigue and queasiness except for those 2 or 3 days of the first week of chemo. I was fortunate and had no mouth sores and my blood levels stayed high throughout treatment.

Good luck! It was definitely not easy, but it was worth it - I'm still here!

LiveWithCancer

Are you getting chemo or immunotherapy? If you're getting immunotherapy, my reaction was completely different than what I described above. Immunotherapy was a bit of fatigue the day of treatment and the following day (nothing debilitating at all). My thyroid did quit working fairly quickly ... that was the worst side effect (and it wasn't that bad except for the weight I gained and can't lose). I was on every other week infusions for 5 years and one-a-month infusions for another year or so.

Kp2018

You might not have any noticeable side effects. There's always that possibility. I remember wondering the morning after the first dose when the side effects would kick in. None did. After the 4th cycle of AC, I did develop mouth sores, but that was it. Of course, I lost my hair, and over time became rather pale, but I never missed a cardio or yoga class. I'll admit that I wasn't knocking myself out during cardio classes, but I was there, at least going through the motions.

My oncologist attributed my tolerance of chemo to the fact that I exercise regularly and resolved to not let up during treatment.

So, don't talk yourself into have side effects. Yours may be minimal, and quite tolerable.

Best of luck to you. The important thing is the effectiveness of the treatment, not the side effects.