Liddy's tips
I haven't read that many cancer books, but I have read a couple of them. And, I have spent a lot of time on the web, trying to find ways to make myself more comfortable with what is currently happening to me. The following is my current list of tips that I haven't seen anywhere else. (Some should be taken tongue-in-cheek.)
 | If you get a port and if you're a woman, you might want to see if you can have some input on where it goes. Mine first was put below my left clavicle. Because of its location, it made wearing a bra very uncomfortable. Luckily, today's fashion contains many tops where the bras are contained in them. |
| Be careful of your support groups. I joined a Ewing's sarcoma email support group, and found it to be depressing (too many announcements that So-and-so died that week), or not informative. But, since it is the only source of others with my type of tumor, I'm not comfortable quitting it... something useful might come along. |
| Listen to the nurses/doctors when they tell you whether or not you have to drink lots of water. I had two interleaving courses of drugs; one that I had to drink lots, and the other that I didn't ('cause it was given as in-patient chemo with lots of hydration). But, I still drank a lot of water the second time, and was miserable due to the frequent trips to the toilet, leaking (due to all of the fluid that I was trying to pass), etc. |
| LISTEN when they tell you some drug will constipate you! |
| When you're in the hospital, make sure that you have some visitors who feel like their primary role is to make you more comfortable, and don't mind running and finding your nurse when you need pain meds, or changing your bed when it seems like you got overlooked for the 3rd day in a row. |
| Find a way to work thru your feelings. For some, this is talking to others in a similar situation. For me, it has been documenting my feelings and thoughts in a journal. Once I have been able to examine a thought, feeling, or frustration in this manner, it is much easier to move past it to the next one. :) |