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.
on November 1, 2008 on 6:26 pm
[...] ABVD Part Three ABVD for Newbies – [...]
on December 4, 2008 on 2:47 am
Thank you so much for this article. It’s exactly what I was looking for. I start ABVD in two days, and wanted to know first hand what it was like. You’ve done that for me. I don’t feel near as nervous. I know every case is different, but at least I have an idea wat to expect. The docs. try to let you know whats up, but they’ve never had chemo. Thanks again for making my experience less scary.
on January 11, 2009 on 6:03 pm
Hi Sarah… I was just wondering how you are doing with chemo. I just started last Tuesday. Let me know. Thanks Vicki
on January 18, 2009 on 5:07 pm
I want to thank you so much for leaving behind a piece of you for the rest of us to learn of!!! I have HAD hodgkin’s for at least one year now but it has just recently been diagnosed. I admit – I am scared to go get my port and bone marrow biopsy done but it helps to hear from others who have gone through the same thing. I can not thank you enough for your input and dedication to this site. Thank you thank you thank you and congradulations with whatever chemo success you have had. Feel free to contact me at my e-mail address should you feel it appropriate.
THANK YOU! From the bottom of my heart.
on April 10, 2009 on 1:48 pm
Thank you for the information. I start ABVD on Tuesday, April 14, 2009. I also have a journal for all to read about my experience.
http://www.caringbridge.com/visit/melodyk
This is a wonderful site to keep friends and families updated on your progress.
on July 22, 2009 on 7:15 pm
Hi –
I had ABVD for Hodgkin’s last year – 12 rounds of it. It’s interesting to read that you had the IDENTICAL reaction as I did. Mid-way thru I was nauseus before I even got to the hospital to get the chemo…all anticipatory and nothing I could do about it. Everyone reacts different but remember to cut yourself some slack because ABVD is one of the stronger chemo’s out there – it is tough…but I got through it and so will everyone else. I was thankful that if I had to get cancer, it was Hodgkin’s. This is one of the “easier” ones to get rid of. On the days you feel sick, be sick but on the days you feel good, take advantage of them as much as you can. I know i did.
Good luck!
on July 26, 2009 on 10:40 am
Hi
I was diagnosed with stage 2 Hodgkins a few months ago, and have been through 2 out of my 6 rounds of ABVD. Personally after reading your blog I think that so far i’ve been very lucky, I just keep up the pharmacy of anti-nausea pills my Oncologist has prescribed, take them exactly as prescribed, and the only real side effect i have noticed is a little fatigue 2 days after treatment. I’m 25 years old, I have a 7 month old baby and my husband works away for 2 weeks and home for only 1. I never feel sick after chemo, my hair has thinned a little but not much. My friends and family want to help me so badly, but i don’t even need their help, even with my baby. The only help i’ve really needed is babysitters for when I have my chemo, and even that I drive myself to and from when my husband isn’t here to come with me! Having cancer sux, and the only thing i’m really freaking out about is loosing my hair, if it happens, and only because I really do feel fine and I don’t want to look sick with no hair especially when I don’t feel sick. My life hasn’t really changed, I just have more appointments than usual. But I must say, That Bone Marrow Biopsy was the most painful thing i’ve ever had to go through!
So hopefully I will continue to breeze through my chemo and will be over this hurdle in my life in a few short months, I am and always have been a very positive person, so I thought maybe by leaving this comment, I can give some hope to others out there that are about to go through a similar thing to just try and stay positie and that everyone’s different and maybe it won’t be as bad as you think!
Good luck