Here is what I learned from spending a year in the chemo room. First, listen to the nurses. They are full of practical knowledge about how to minimize the side effects. Second, listen to about 2/3 of what other chemo patients tell you, and not at all to well-intended bystanders.
I started riding while going through chemo the first time. I did three miles (the first three miles in many years), came home and laid down on the bed panting for the next 45 minutes. I later found my red blood count had crashed, and a few shots of EPO fixed me right up. EPO (Arinesp or Procrit) is magic juice. Don't just ask for it, demand it.
My worst crash ever was during chemo. I rode during the off week between treatments, and I crashed on a path, badly spraining my hip. On Wednesday I came in for treatment, on crutches, which the nurses thought was funny because they don't get a lot of chemo patients crashing their bikes. Anyway, after four hours in the chair, I get up, and my hip is much better. I went home and was able to walk without the crutches for two days. I learned the steroid they give to avoid nausea acted on the inflammation in the hip. More magic juice.
During chemo you feel like a toxic waste dump. Your skin smells, your urine smells, you either have diarrhea or are constipated. Your nose runs. Food taste bad. Your stomach is perpetually upset. You look haggard. Demand sleeping pills. Studies have shown no correlation between a good attitude and success in cancer treatment, so I adopted a "F*ck you" attitude, which was much easier to maintain than a more cheerful outlook. With most chemo you're supposed to stay out of the sun, so bundle up if you go riding. Take an iPod if you have to spend long times in the chair - whatever they gave me made my eyes goofy and I couldn't read in the chair.
Here's a joke to tell the other patients in the chemo room. My doctor examined me and shook his head and said, "sorry, there's nothing I can do for you." And I said, "Jeez, doc, nothing at all?" And he thought for a minute and said, "You should go down to the health spa and start taking mud baths." And I said, "Will that help the cancer? and he said "No, but it will get you used to dirt." Cancer patients think that is very funny.