Chemotherapy is a life-changing experience for many cancer patients. This process of treatment can take as long as two years from diagnosis to full recovery. Chemotherapy, like many other treatments, can wreak havoc on your body and emotions. You’re going to want to have a plan for what to expect when you go through it.
Here are tips for when you go through your treatment.
First and foremost, you need to be in good health. That means at least a few months of being actively doing things you enjoy. You don’t want to have a major setback and not take part in treatment.
A good idea is to start working out, but not too much to get in the way. You dont want anyone to know you were on chemo. If youre training for a marathon or something, then youll need a little extra muscle. That being said, you shouldnt have any major setbacks, or youll be left behind and never reach the recovery stage.
Chemotherapy is one of the biggest decisions you’ll have to make when you get sick. It takes a while to recover and you’ll be left with a major loss of mobility. You dont want to be left hanging on the side of the road for days on end, and you dont want to be behind someone because you have to back off.
If youre having more than one chemo treatment, you should get a second one. It increases the chances of recovery as well.
Chemotherapy is a lot like a “blender” for your immune system. As you get sick, your body goes into a fight or flight mode. It will start fighting off the bugs and viruses that are invading your body and you. It will also start producing white blood cells to fight off the toxins and bacteria. This white blood cell production can be slowed by blocking certain parts of your immune system.
In chemotherapy, you do not only get white blood cells to fight the bugs that are invading your body. You also get your immune system to fight off the toxins that are killing your body. In other words, your body is being tricked into fighting off the bugs while it is dying. The chemo doesn’t stop the body from dying, it just slows down the process of dying.
It’s not always bad news. Sometimes the chemo can cause infections that you dont even know you have. Then there are the side effects of the chemo. For example, if you have some type of autoimmune disease (like lupus), which is an inflammation of the immune system and often leads to swelling, redness, and pain, then your body is attacking itself. In some cases it’s not possible to treat the infection, but in other cases you can.
Cancer is one of the most destructive diseases and the one that is hard to cure. Most of us don’t have cancer. But a significant portion of us do. And in many cases, we may develop cancer due to genetic defects that were not present when we were born. It’s difficult to diagnose, and we generally have no idea about what causes it.
