Ken, you are in my thoughts and prayers. Life is all about attitude, especially when life tests us. You are an inspiration to us all. Please keep us informed of how you are doing.

Lots of inspiration to be drawn from this thread...

I rode last year's Le Tour de Femme with a woman who's getting chemo.

It's rather individual. She can't ride for a couple of days after a treatment. She is getting a difficult regimen and her endurance is only around 15 miles.

She has found that she can keep down gels after chemo, when food will not stay down. She has to eat frequent small amounts, and wear a lot of layers of clothes to stay warm.

So, keep in mind that sports drink, gels, and recovery drinks may be useful during chemo.

Cisplatin is tough - it causes hand and foot sensitivity in many folks, but if you can take it, go for it. I know this sounds silly, but loose shoes, soft socks, and good hand lotion helps a lot. Listen to the nurses, they know a lot more than the doctors.

bud and ken outstanding, stay strong.

Saturday, the day after chemo, I still felt pretty good, but the weather was way too nasty to ride. Sunday was better weather, but I started to feel sick, and had to bail after just a 13 mile ride. Monday, I went to work, only to leave and come home after four hours. Today, I lasted just 30 minuted at work, and had to come home. I finally seem to have figured out that one of the two anti-nausea drugs they are giving me is making me sick. Sheesh....... not only are the chemo drugs bad, the anti-chemo drugs are bad.

The only good way of looking at this- is the fact that you are able to get chemo in. So now to sort that Anti- Nausea nasty you are getting. Should get that sorted by about the n Th. treatment so enjoy the time off work- Not easy if you are feeling rough- but look at the positive side. When you do get back to work- Your colleagues wil have saved all your work for you- just so you don't feel left out.

Just keep looking forward- and plan the summer rides.

Well, that's a bummer! Hope you're feeling better soon and can find one that doesn't make you sicker.

I have a similar problem with antibiotics. I've had several reactions to them over the years.

Take it easy and don't push yourself. This is only temporary.

Wednesday, the day after my last post, I not only felt well enough to work all day, my wife and I did 25.3 miles on the tandem that evening. Unfortunately, the weather turned bad yesterday, and today I had the day 8 gemcitamine IV, and now I feel way bad. Oh well, I guess 38 miles on the bike this week is better than nothing.

Keep your head up Bud Bent. At least you got a ride in with the wife. Sorry the chemo is kicking you so hard.

Bill

I hope you can ride again soon.

Make sure you're drinking enough. Lots of liquid helps clear out the poisons. My taste buds got so screwy I couldn't stand water, but I really dug lemonade flavored gatorade. I also spent an overnight in the hospital with dehydration after one session. Time does pass.

Hang in there. There will be many more miles to do after the chemo:)

keep your faith and stay strong.
We are all pulling for you!

It's better than many 'healthy' people do. Stay strong, Bud Bent.

Hi Bud, I've read that it's helpful to visualize the chemo cocktail as being a healing agent rather than "poison" Some other tips from Peggy Huddleston's book about healing:

Believe your treatment is a healing agent
Relax before, during, and after treatments
Visualize healing imagery
Release repressed emotions
Create or find a positive support group (I consider this forum a positive support group!)

Beliefs about chemo really impact your reactions. According to Peggy's book, there was a control group where they all thought they were given chemo, but were given a placebo instead. 30% lost their hair because they thought they had received chemo! If you welcome chemo, believe it's cleansing your body of cancer cells, think of it as healing rather than toxic, and really want the treatment rather than just following the doc's advice - these are all beliefs that (according to Peggy) positively influence how you'll go through chemo.

Hope this helps! In the end, each of us has to find our own way. But support of friends helps! Thanks again for taking us along on your journey.

Bud, I'm glad you're still posting and feeling well enough to ride.
I'm sure the down days are tough. Hang in there, we're pulling
for you.

My wife was diagnosed with stage four cancer in June of 2006. Chemo is part of every week for us. Her strongest days are the day preceding, the day of, and the day after chemotherapy. She prefers to stoke our tandem which we ride mostly offroad. It allows her to get out of the house and exercise to the best extent that she feels comfortable with.

Good point. I think some of my symptoms are, indeed, from dehydration, and I've forced myself to start downing more water these last couple of days.

I felt better yesterday, with only a major headache leftover, so I took a pain pill, and went for a 25.1 mile ride. That's 63 miles for the week, not too bad I think, since it's February and I'm being hammered with chemo.

There is a lot of advice out there about how to get through chemo, and how to get through cancer. Shortly after I got sick, a friend told me about a friend of his who said that, instead of thinking "why me?," he thought "why NOT me?" If you're strong, have a good attitude (and good insurance, too, incidentally), you're exactly the kind of person who can make it through cancer and cancer treatment.

Well, after working on that attitude for a while, and after reading a study that showed that a positive attitude did not affect survival rate or length, I decided on a "f**k you" attitude, which was far easier to maintain. I decided to fight it because I have four children who, I think, need me. Otherwise, all this positive attitude crap is just that.

Chemo is, in fact, poison (you should see the chemo nurses mixing it with gloves and masks under the vent hood). The package inserts are downright scary. It's purpose is to kill as much of the cancer (and you) that it can without killing the host. The adjuvant treatments (the medicine to counter the side effects) are much better now than they were in years past, but they are far from perfect.

Bud - When I was biking during chemo, I tried the visualization technique. With each pedal stroke I envisioned killing cancers cells and screaming "die, motherf**ker, die." It seemed to work.

This was my no-treatment week, I felt ok, and the weather was mild (except for Tuesday), so it seemed like a good time to get some miles:

Monday = 25.3 miles
Wednesday = 25.2 miles
Thursday = 27.0 miles
Saturday = 62.7 miles

I weigh 3 pounds less than I did on December 19th, the day before my lung surgery, so my weight is holding up alright so far.

The chemo drugs do take their toll, though. After today's 62 mile ride, I was as wiped out as I've ever been after a 200k. My red blood cell count is bound to be lower after the next round, so I don't think I'd better do any more rides of this length until the chemo is over, and I have recovered. Round 2 starts next Friday.

So happy to see that you are getting out there and doing some nice rides. In addition to staying hydrated, it would be good to make sure your food choices are as nutritious as possible whenever you do eat, to help your immune system and overall strength. Your body needs help from every direction. You're truly an inspiration -- you, Kerlenbach, tandemonium's wife, and anyone else here to continues to participate in a healthy lifestyle under difficult circumstances.

Forgive me if this has been discussed here, but did you talk to the doc about EPO?

I was going to ask the same thing. It really, really helped my mother's energy level when she was on dialysis for kidney failure. I've heard that you really have to fight for it sometimes because it's pricey. Time to be your own advocate?

Just at the beginning. I do lab work before each chemo session, and if my red blood cell count is low at that point, EPO or other options would be used. The blood count actually bottoms out the week before chemo (which is what this Friday was), and is expected to rebound by treatment time. I was already eating pretty healthy, am exercising, and haven't lost weight, so I'm hoping mine will hold up, at least reasonably well. But longer rides on the week it's lowest may be too much.