Not only cancer, but also the treatment associated with cancer could be highly challenging for the patients!!
Chemotherapy is also used to treat patients with cancer. Patients as well as their family members must understand the side effects of chemotherapy as this would help them to manage emotional and physical challenges associated with it. Moreover, treatment`s effect could be monitored closely by them if they understand the side effects of chemotherapy.
It is known that chemotherapy is a process that involves the use of powerful drugs or medicines to kill or remove rapidly growing cancer cells. Bitter fact is that chemotherapy could also affect healthy cells causing side effects. Patient`s treatment experience would become better by recognising the side effects of chemotherapy early.
There are certain side effects of chemotherapy like
Fatigue:
The fatigue associated with chemotherapy could range from mild to severe. Point is that unlike normal fatigue chemotherapy induced fatigue would not go away with rest. Patients undergoing chemotherapy would feel completely drained or extremely tired etc.
Nausea and vomiting:
Within a few hours of the chemotherapy process, patients could get nausea and vomiting etc. Truth is that nausea and vomiting could be due to drugs irritating the lining in the stomach and affecting the nausea centres in the brain. Usually, patients are prescribed anti-nausea medicines.
Hair loss:
The hair follicles in the head would get affected by chemotherapy and due to this patients will experience hair loss. This hair loss would be temporary only and hairs could grow once again once chemotherapy gets completed.
More risk of infections:
By lowering the number of WBCs, chemotherapy would lead to increased chances for infections in the patients. Those patients undergoing chemotherapy could get chills, fever or cough etc.
Mouth or throat sores:
By undergoing chemotherapy, the patients could get sores in their mouths or throats etc. This might make swallowing difficult.
Appetite and taste changes:
Chemotherapy patients would finind the food taste different or might experience a metallic kind of taste. They might also experience loss of appetite.
Nails and skin changes:
Dryness, itching and skin peeling off etc would be experienced by the chemotherapy undergoing patients. Their nails could get brittle and discoloured also.
Cognitive changes:
Memory issues, confusion etc are experienced by the chemotherapy patients. They might find it difficult to concentrate. It could be temporary but frustrating both for the patients and their families. Cognitive exercises would help the patients to deal with this.
Fertility issues:
It must be noted that chemotherapy could affect the fertility in males and females. Before starting their chemotherapy treatments, patients must talk about their fertility preservation with their doctors.