2 Chemo-Embo's and in a lot of pain

Fighting4Dave · New User Joined: 15 Jan 2010 Posts: 1

Hi, my first post. My step father has HCC Liver Cancer. Has had two Chemo-Embo's (had both sides of liver due to tumors on both sides) and afterwards he's been really tired. Hardly able to get out bed, now he has the craziest hiccups all day and night, isn't sleeping, his feet and legs are really swollen...he can't eat much and has absolutely not appetite...I'm getting really worried that the treatments are making him sick but that they also are not working...has anyone else experienced such bad side effects from chemo-embo?

I'm praying he has to "get worse" from treatment before he gets better...but it's just so hard to see him suffer...any

sheila · Senior User Joined: 24 Jul 2008 Posts: 478

Im sorry I cant help with your question I hope someone eles is able to-Your both in my thoughts and prayers call the doctor in the morning and insist on speaking with him about his symptoms.

hummelja · Regular Joined: 04 Feb 2009 Posts: 11

In my experience (two TACEs and two intra-arterial chemo procedures) youir father's side effects sound pretty typical. I always feel horrible after any kind of chemo and it seems lasts about 6 weeks. The side effects tend to get you down, make you think the end is near, that there's no hope, etc, etc. You just try to do everything you can to stay the course and get through them. Of course the disease itself may still be present to some extent and chemo doesn't always work as well as we'd like but as far as the side effects go, they do go away eventually. My oncologist put me on anti-depressants (at my request). This can help a lot during these periods. Hope this was some help.
_________________
Andy Hummel

MCDG · New User Joined: 22 Feb 2010 Posts: 5 Location: UK

[quote="Fighting4Dave"]Hi, my first post. My step father has HCC Liver Cancer. Has had two Chemo-Embo's (had both sides of liver due to tumors on both sides) and afterwards he's been really tired. Hardly able to get out bed, now he has the craziest hiccups all day and night, isn't sleeping, his feet and legs are really swollen...he can't eat much and has absolutely not appetite...I'm getting really worried that the treatments are making him sick but that they also are not working...has anyone else experienced such bad side effects from chemo-embo?

I'm praying he has to "get worse" from treatment before he gets better...but it's just so hard to see him suffer...any[/quote]
*********************************************************

I have had one chemoembo so far. The sitting itself was excruciating. I felt I was being crushed by a buldozer from the neck to the waist! I also threw up twice during the session. I had been told about the side effects, but nothing about the atrocious pain I had [b]during [/b]the treatment!
On March 5th, I shall have my 2nd chemoembo. Not looking forward to it, but at least I was promised a pump that I could activate myself when needed.
I also hope it will work a bit better than the 1st one, where 3 tumours were treated. (In total, I have 6 tumours, though 2 of them might be regenerative cells). One responded well, another one only a bit, the 3rd one not at all. It is the latter and only this one that they will try to treat next time.
Afterwards, I felt really, really bad for more than 3 weeks. In pain, no appetite, could hardly walk and very tired but now I am fine again AND my liver function test showed all the values were eventually back to normal. It drives me mad, thinking that in a fortnight they will be all over the place again!

	Cancer Forums Forum Index -> Liver Cancer Forum	All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Page 1 of 1

A website for discussions about any type of cancer, including lung cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, laryngeal cancer, leukemia, lymphoma, multiple myeloma and others