Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Chemo -- whatzit like?

This is Seminoma (Wait, isn't that a Korean crossover vehicle?) Cancer of the germ cells of the testes. I had my left nut removed back in September. They must have missed something. They keep telling me this is cancer is easy to treat-- that it succumbs easily to chemo and radiation.

Thanks all. I'll let y'all know how it goes. I'll be taking a laptop, so who knows! Maybe I'll be able to report live from Les Marches du Pays Inconnu.

Ah! Monsieur Shaman? Party of One? Yes, we have your table right over there next to Le Trou Oubli. We have you scheduled for Le jus d'insecte a la Buick with a carry-out order of Biscuits et Sauce Nausées. N'est Pas? An attendant will be with you shortly.


It sounds so much better in French.





I hope "eorsy" is another way of saying "worst."

I forgot to add - both you and kyhillchick have our prayers.
May you recover completely, and have an easy journey back to health.

I had Hodgkin's Lymphoma at age 32. Wife had Mantle Cell Lymphoma at 44. Treatment was rough to say the least. But, as mentioned above there are many, many different types of chemo. Some people get through it without much fuss.

Not going to sugarcoat it. When it's bad, it's really bad. And, the effects are cumulative. My advice, prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

Best of luck to you, sir!

God speed.

I guess I didn't answer the original question. Most likely your first day won't be bad at all. Like I said, most of the side effects are cumulative. Give it a few weeks. That's when the accumulated toxins start bringing you down.

Can't tell you from a personal level of experience but I watched my father go through it. He didn't beat the Big C. After watching Dad, I'll never do it.

Today, chemo is a collective name for a whole range of cancer treatments. Each one is designed to be effective on a certain type of cancer, gene type, etc., etc..

The best way to describe chemo as a collective term is to say it's like taking a medically controlled poison. Chemos do not attack just the tumor/s that you may have. It attacks everything inside of you to some extent. How one person handles a particular chemo treatment may be far different than how the next person handles the same chemo.

One element to having chemo is that you need to be fairly strong going in the front door as chemo will progressively wear you and your body down.

Take the chemo if it's a known and accepted treatment for the type of cancer that you have. I'd bet the farm that it is..... You'll definitely feel its effect, but keep on trucking and put the experience behind you as you get back to normal.

I think having the metal taste in my mouth was horrible. Lemon drops or hard peppermint candies helped. When you feel your hair follicles feel like ice picks, shave off your hair that has not already fallen out.

Take books, iPad, anything to entertain you during chemo. The chair gets hard quickly. I also took blankets because the chemo felt like it had just come out of the freezer or felt like it.

Best wishes & be tuff.........

Good luck and beat it.


Obviously really really watch your diet and carbs and sugars intake

Continued prayers for total recovery.

No experience with it but I hope you kick cancers ass

What an interesting hobby to share. I tried to get KYHillChick into reloading, but she never took a shine to it.




It sounds a lot like harpsichord major I dated for a while.

I don’t have any personal experience with chemo myself but I have had too many loved ones that did. As mentioned above the best hedge against the side effects of chemo is being in a good frame of mind. Having read about your experience with this cancer and the honest way that you’ve approached this I think you’re better than halfway there. You’re attitude is inspiring and you have a lot of cyber friends across this country that are pulling for you and praying for you….I’m one of those people.

God bless you and give you comfort during your journey to beat cancer!

Good luck and prayers to you .

Good Luck Shaman for you and your family. Prayers are sent.

For me the 3 rounds of a 3 drug 3x weekly regimen that was described by my doc as "high strength" were no walk in the park. Lost darn near 80 lbs down to like 140 and looked like a walking skeleton. Lost the energy and strength to do most anything beyond going from the recliner to the pisser.And slept ALOT. Beyond the loss of energy my most annoying side affect was having to piss....ALOT. That was most likely from the 3 extra liters of saline they infused between the chemo drugs. Often had to drag the IV pole 10+ times to the bathroom while getting the 7 hours worth of infusions. Usually had to stop 4 or 5 times on the 50 mile drive home from the hospital and once counted being out of bed 27 times to piss in 9 hours of trying to sleep. I was also COLD most of the time.

Also lost most of sense of taste and foods I normally like were unappealing to me. One of the few things I actually enjoyed and could tolerate eating was actually Meat Lovers pizza from Pizza Hut lol.

Beyond that the Chemo lowered my white blood cell count critically low and I had 3 Nuelasta injections. At one point I had developed what appeared to be a sinus infection that hit me HARD and was treated with some high strength antibiotics and had my treatments suspended for a week.

Took me over a year to feel "normal" again as far as physical activity, weight, strength etc.

As far as the actual time at the infusion center I mostly browsed the internet or slept.

Importantly I kept a postive mental outlook and pushed myself to do as much activity as I could physically tolerate. The infusion nurses were amazed that I did as much as I did.

My oncologist described chemo as "poisoning me to make me better". This was made more evident by the chemo nurses wearing full heavy gowns, face shields,2 pair of gloves etc when handling the chemo drugs!

On the positive note I am 9+ years cancer free and have no noticeable lasting effects beyond being alot harder to start an IV on and my hands and feet seem to get cold faster.

Never had it but the wife has been on and off it since 2010. Sometimes she goes to bed as soon as she gets home and sometimes she keeps going like nothing happened. The first dose they will probably give you a dose of steroids to help keep you going. The wife had them eliminate it after the first time because it turned her into the engergizer bunny to the point where she couldn't sleep.

She couldn't wait to get chemo started because she knew the cancer cells were going to be slaughtered and that made her feel good. There is a battle when her neutrophils are low and they don't want to infuse her because her immune system is so weak. She is willing to take the risk but there are policies the medical people have to abide by. She hates coming home thinking the cancer isn't being beseiged.

When we take her into the infusion room each week there are twenty some stations with people getting flooded with one poison or another. We haven't witnessed a bad reaction yet. It's a pretty refined art by now, nothing like the old days.

Those nurses will take care of you like you're their own people.

Don't worry and do what they say.

God bless and Good Luck!

Yes I should have added that my oncologist and especially the nursing staff at the infusion center were BY FAR the best, most caring medical staff I have ever dealt with!!!

Nobody I know gives chemo good reviews. 80 percent tell me they aren't sure if they'll do it again, it was that bad for them. I myself am pretty much terminal, but considering chemo after Labor Day (I want this possibly-final summer) if the odds are "good" I'll get another summer by nearly killing my wannabee killer. CONSIDERING it.

Shaman, Prayers up.

To me the 4th round of Chemo was the worst because I was freakN spent !

My tips are don’t give up, re-evaluate what “feeling good” is, drink lots of water, and remember that fried chicken taste the same coming up as it did going down.

Goodluck !