Hi GG,

I'm sorry you're feeling so terrible. Don't give it another thought about venting. Cancer is so frustrating. Just don't give up. Sending lots of love and prayers for the easment of your nausea, dizziness and much strength to you.

You have been through so much, you are a hero to me. Thank you so much for your encouragement and prayers, I need lots of those. I know God is in control and will heal me. But I gotta go through this chemo mess in the process of healing, it's just not a lot of fun. Every night I say "Tomorrow will be better" So I'm hoping for a better day tomorrow. g

GG2009 I am sorry to hear you are not feeling well. When I am not feeling ok I try to distract myself. A book or a movie or just a radio. And I manage to forget my weaknesses.
Wishing you a great blood count and a better tomorrow.
Russian

Russian, Thank you for your ideas. I do try to keep myself busy with books, tv, crossword puzzles, whatever. It's easier to do when I just have the nausea (which is all the time), but when I have the dizzies (which is pretty often) it's just too hard to do anything but tv. The dizzies affect my brain and eyesight, I get sort of foggy. I just pray that my white blood count would stay up so I can get the chemo and get over this whole mess as soon as possible. In my 3 months of chemo I've only had 4 treatments because of low wbc. Hope my next 8 treatments will go quicker.

GG -- I'm so sorry that you are having such a bad time. For nausea, I am taking:

Emend
Zofran
2 Ginger Capsules
2 Prilosec in the morning
2 Prilosec at night
Sea-Band Acupressure Bands (I have two sets, one for wearing and one for showering)
Acupuncture (once a weeek)
Preggie Pops (3 pops = 1 serving)

It seems like a lot and drastic that I'll never take the Bands off but somehow the nausea gets better, granted I'm still nauseated for a total of 7 days.

I'd like to know how low your WBC was, mine is currently 4.6 and I wonder how much long I'll be able to work.

Your frustration about chemo and its side effects are completely understandable. Feel free to spout off anytime.

Hi Becky, I take Zofran for the 3 days of chemo then Ativan the rest of the time. I took a Prilosec the other day and think I had a reaction to it, so I\'ll wait a couple of days and try one again. The Ativan works pretty good for me, but I hate to keep taking them all the time cause they are habit forming (I can\'t sleep at night without one) My white count was low again this week so no chemo for me. Hopefully next week. Wish it would stay up so I could get chemo on time, this process is gonna take me a long time to go through if my wbc keeps staying low (once I was 1.8)

Hi everyone and best wishes, this is my first posting. I have stage II colon cancer, and just had 2 ft of colon removed on Monday May 18th, and have been back home for a week. No lymph nodes, thankfully, but an oncologist will decide if chemo is necessary. Very sore belly, otherwise not feeling too bad, and just glad to be back at home.

Welcome, Joe! I hade a right hemicolectomy (half the colon removed) and was Stage 1, so I didn\'t need chemo. I was petty sure after my surgery that I was eitherr Stage 1 or 2, and spent a lot of time researching whether I would need chenmo if I was Stage 2. It seems the jury is still out on that one. I hope you get the "all clear" and won\'t need it. If not, this is a great support group!

Oops, sorry about the typos. Hard to believe I write for a living, lol. I wish they had spell check on this BB!

Hi GG. Sorry you are going through this, really sorry we are all going through this. I wanted to let you know that I have been having a really hard time with nausea since I was diagnosed 4 years ago. I am now on my 4th different treatment (cocktail as I call it) and I always have nausea. This time I got the Transderm-Scop 1.5 mg patch. It is scopolamine 1.5 mg. You wear it for three days and then change it to a new one. It is used for seasickness but it has worked for me. Just have to make sure you keep it on and change it every 3 days. I tried not using it for a few days and started to throw up again.
I also take Ativan every night before bed, have been for over 4 years.
The chemo now is making me sick with flu like symptons, fever, tired, no appetite. I really think your body tells you what it can and cannot take.
Think positive and try to be strong. Best of luck, Kim

Hi Kim, well you sure have been going through a mess, and much longer than me. You are in my prayers, God is in control and He will heal us. I will ask my Dr about that patch. I take Ativan every night, have since Jan. and fairly often during the day, it does help. Thank you for writing to me, I love hearing from others about their journey. Take care & hugs, g

GG - I thought of you because on another colon cancer list someone wrote about Emend. What he said: "A lot of people have good results with a drug called Emend, including myself but doctors don't ever seem to start out
with it because it's expensive . . ." Anyway, I hope your nausea is under control. If not, remember you are worth every penny!!