ABVD Part Three

Getting ABVD is a non-event for many people.  My problems came later in treatment when I started associating the cancer center with feeling sick and developed anticipatory nausea.

But I know you’re wondering … how do you feel after ABVD?

One thing you MUST keep in mind is that EVERYONE reacts a little bit differently to even the exact same chemo. So my experience is not going to be your exact experience and visa versa.

It’s very difficult to describe exactly how you feel on chemo.  I’m a lawyer, so I write descriptions and explanations of things for a living, and even I have trouble articulating what chemo was like.  It was sort of like a cross between having a stomach flu and just being completely out of it, like you didn’t even really care you were alive.

My experience was this:  I was treated on a Friday morning.  I would start feeling uneasy Thursday night.  I started to dread chemo more and more by the end.

Friday morning I would start feeling sick AT the treatment center before anything even happened.  I think this was all in my head.  I would get treated and feel almost immediately terrible.  Nausea mainly.  All I wanted to do was lay down.  It made no sense to sit up and try and distract myself.  The best thing to do was go straight to bed and lay there and try to sleep.  I usually wasn’t nauseated so long as I was laying down.

I never actually threw up, but I often felt nauseated for a few days and I didn’t want to eat.  I would eat nothing at all on Fridays, then pick at my dinner Saturday and Sunday. By Monday, I would feel well enough to eat a normal amount and maybe go for a run.  By Wednesday I would be at 95% and would be pretty normal … until the cycle would begin again.

One big tip that I really wished someone had told me before my first ABVD:  Anti-nausea drugs work best before you are nauseated.  Once you feel sick, your fighting an uphill battle.  Take your drugs around the clock for the first few days even if you feel fine.

Honestly, most of the time during ABVD, I felt good.  Really, I had about twelve good days, and three really bad days.  It seems from talking to other Hodge patients that most people don’t feel immediately sick like I did, but rather the side effects hit later.  I will say that my first treatment basically established the pattern, and the rest were very similar.  I didn’t find I felt “worse” as treatment went on, but I think that may be because I was sick to begin with.

Anyway, I hope that gives you an overview of what to expect from ABVD and hopefully allays some of your fears.