OK before I start talking about my first oncology adventure I’m going to pop down a few things I wish I had known before I started on my treatments. If you have been going through treatment or finished you will already know a lot of this. I’d love it if you have any tips you can add. Please pop them in the comments. The whole point of this is sharing cancer knowledge so anything people can add is fabulously appreciated. If you want to add comments then please view this in ‘reader’.

So first thing is very practical. If you are about to start treatment go to a dentist! Seriously! I had no idea how much treatment hammers your teeth and gums. I lost a tooth during chemo treatment which is apparently a common side effect. Luckily it was a back molar but still forewarned is forearmed! I was good and gargled my salt water and bi-carb as is suggested, but 5 months into chemo I developed a gum infection and an abscess. Not a problem normally but chemo involves chemicals that stay in your system an many dentists won’t touch you if you are on chemo. I found one who would help but I had to wait a week in excruciating pain on anti-biotics before they could see me and it’s an experience that this tip may help prevent. It also meant my treatment was put on hold for a few weeks, so if possible, I really really suggest seeing a dentist pre-treatment.

Now, I’m slightly embarrassed by this next part. I knew very little about chemo pre my adventure. I knew the term and had friends and family who had had cancer and knew they had chemo, but I never really understood how it worked. I think a lot of people pre cancer sort of understand chemo as an ‘umbrella term’, but maybe don’t understand just how individual it is. I actually didn’t realise that different drugs are used for different cancers and only just target that cancer. I also discovered that timeframes, the actual chemo sessions and treatments are absolutely individual.

Did you know that hair loss in cancer treatment is impacted by what part of the body is being treated? The lower the treatment the less likely you are to loose all your hair? This was confirmed by a cancer care nurse about 6 months into my treatment. I had prepared to loose all my hair and had bought scarves and looked at wigs. However, with the bowel cancer treatment I lost a lot of hair and it was thin but still kept it. Breast cancer is a different beast.

Final tip of the day involves radiation treatment. I didn’t need radiation with the bowel cancer, but with the breast cancer diagnosis I did. I didn’t know that after radiation treatment, to quote a friend who also had radiation treatment for breast cancer, “you keep cooking”. It’s nothing to worry about but you certainly need to keep moisturising and be prepared for symptoms such as rashes to come up for weeks after treatment which I really wasn’t prepared for at the time. Stock up on Moogoo ( moisturiser) I say!

Remember, If you have other pre-cancer tips please pop in the comments box. Thanks