A set of medicines used for treating cancer is Chemotherapy. Under this several types of medicines are taken in the form of liquid, tablets or capsule. Oral chemotherapy does not need to take injections into the body. Oral chemotherapy also gives good results and works better like other chemotherapy forms. Mostly chemotherapy drugs are injected into vein through an IV line. It is not possible to take drugs by mouth orally because it may affect the stomach and body may get damaged. But, today many drugs are available in oral form and are very easy to use and treat. Administering of oral drugs may after consultation with the caretaker. Duration of chemotherapy will depend on kind of the cancer and the medicines used for chemotherapy treatment.
Points to be noted before getting into oral chemotherapy:
Make sure that the drug, more than one is not having the same name. The time to take it. Make sure that the directions for taking drugs are easy to follow. If it is taken with other drugs, vitamins, food, herbs or other treatments, then be cautious about its safety. Method for the storage of drugs. If there is any side effects by the drug consult the doctor. Duration of oral chemo. The consequence of omission of any dosage and the further action. If necessary, help may be taken from friends and family members. Health problems due to oral chemo.
The caretaker doctor will tell the exact instruction for taking chemotherapy medicine. He will give instructions about how and when to take your medicine. The instructions given by the doctor must be followed in to-to. The doctor or caretaker must need to know about problems occurred due to chemotherapy medicine and he will change treatment plans if necessary. The setting of oral chemotherapy allows to keep the level of drug constant in the body, which helps to kill the cancer cells. There is need to do some changes but changes should be made after consulting the doctor.
There are many side effects and the patient may or may not have any one or more of this. Most of them are for short period and ends completely after the treatment completes. Some of these side effects are as follows:
Hair loss is very common side effect occurred during chemotherapy treatment. Thickness of your hair reduces and ends in falling. It may happen anywhere in the body having hair. However, this change is for short period because it grows back once the chemotherapy treatment is stopped.
There are some types of cells present in our body such as red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. Number of blood cells in the body may change because of chemo. There may be serious problem to health due to change in blood cells and blood tests are taken to find out problems.
Intestine may get affected by chemo thus there are more chances to have diarrhea or constipation. If this is so the doctor has to be consulted. The sours in mouth and throat during chemo treatment may be informed to the caretaker to prevent this. There may be vomiting and nausea during chemo treatment. The caretaker may advise to decrease this. There are many side effects, which give pain. The patient may feel tired when they are getting chemo. It may happen suddenly or take sometime and it may last for days, weeks and months. The patient may develop flue after getting chemo and this side effect is for very short period and lasts for a few days. There are also problems like chills or muscle and joint ache.
There may be several tests to be taken to know how chemotherapy is working. Some of them are as follows:
Blood Tests - blood is taken from blood vessels of the arm. This test will help your caretaker to give more information about the health condition. Chest X-ray is the picture of the lung and heart and it helps caretaker to see the working of the lung and heart. It is also used to see the infection like pneumonia and find collapsed lungs. It also shows tumors, fluid around the heart and lungs, and broken ribs.
CT scan: This is also called CAT. A special x-ray machine is used for it. First dye is given through an IV in your vein before taking picture. The dye has given to see better picture of cancer. However, some peoples have allergy due to this dye.
Blood transfusion is necessary if the blood cells get harmed by chemo. Help may be sought from the family members or friends having similar blood group.