Chemotherapy Side Effects Quotes

Two days after the chemo I felt terrible, like I had a permanent migraine and had been shot in every limb. I was knackered, starving. The doctor explained that was because I had essentially been poisoned.

...One of the side effects of (surgery, anesthesia,) X-ray..., and chemotherapy, is the suppression...of the patient's immunological defenses...A simple cold often leads to the death from pneumonia - and ('pneumonia') is what appears on the death certificate, not cancer.

During chemo, you're more tired than you've ever been. It's like a cloud passing over the sun, and suddenly you're out. But you also find that you're stronger than you've ever been. You're clear. Your mortality is at optimal distance, not up so close that it obscures everything else, but close enough to give you depth perception. Previously, it has taken you weeks, months, or years to discover the meaning of an experience. Now it's instantaneous.

People always talk about the nausea that comes with chemotherapy. For me, it's more like a queasiness. And it can be intense. It's an uncomfortable, gross kind of 'blech' feeling.

The question was, which would the chemo kill first: the cancer or me?

Chemotherapy takes its toll; the more you keep doing it, you lose your energy, and it gets more difficult to swallow.

If I was at the club you know I balled(bald), CHEMO.

The medication I had to take was a form of chemotherapy. You feel like death every day. No appetite. No energy. But the treatment worked. It cured my liver 80 per cent but compromised my kidneys.

A study of over 10,000 patients shows clearly that chemo's supposedly strong track record with Hodgkin's disease (lymphoma) is actually a lie. Patients who underwent chemo were 14 times more likely to develop leukemia and 6 times more likely to develop cancers of the bones, joints, and soft tissues than those patients who did not undergo chemotherapy .

Dad's cancer experience included periods of relatively good health as well as bouts of hospitalisation as he coursed his way through a variety of different chemotherapy treatments.

The thing with cancer is that it's usually the chemo rather than the disease itself that makes the patient feel so ill, particularly at the start.

Doctors say there's no such thing as chemo brain, but ask any chemo patient.

After two rounds of chemo, I've started to notice, slowly, but surely, my hair has started to appear more regularly in my shower drain, sink drain, pillowcase and comb.

I was terrified of getting the chemo. It's not pleasant. And the radiation is not pleasant.

When doctors tell you that your only hope for survival is 14 straight days of intense chemotherapy, 24 hours a day, you sit there, and you count down the 336 hours. You see, each day is a blessing.

Before he died, my dad had three primary cancers over 20 years, and for four of those years, he was having chemo every day. We got used to sitting as a family at the table and him not to be able to taste what we were tasting.

One day, I had a patient who was going through chemotherapy who came to me and said, 'I'm going to go on with what I'm doing, but I need you to tell me what it is that I'm fighting.'

You know, chemo and radiation is a very tough customer. It does so much good, but it also does a lot of damage.

Chemo is awful!

The worst days are when you feel foggy in the head - chemo-brain they call it. It's awful because you feel boring. As well as bored. And stupid. And resigned.

For a couple of days after chemotherapy, food tastes really bland, even the best foods. I haven't been sick, but have been a little tired. I haven't lost any weight.

It's much easier to go through something and deal with it without being under a microscope... It was stressful. I was terrified getting the chemo. It's not pleasant. And the radiation is not pleasant.

When you're getting chemotherapy, you feel so alone, even when your family is there, or your friends are there with you. Sometimes it's just you, feeling like you're in a fight against something that you can't control.

People tell you you're having chemotherapy, but there are different types of chemotherapy, and you don't know which one you're going to get and how it's going to affect you. The people in the hospitals don't always have time to help you understand it.

I was told by six doctors over six days that they could start me on full-body chemotherapy. And I said, "If you know where I'm coming from, I'd rather die."