How to Cope With the Effects of Chemotherapy
- Kate Middleton, Princess of Wales, revealed she’s been diagnosed with cancer and is currently undergoing preventative chemotherapy. While specifics on the type of cancer remain undisclosed at this time, the chemo she’s undergoing comes with a string of challenging side effects.
- Scalp cooling devices are an option to preserve your hair during chemo. It constricts the blood flow to the scalp; the caps limit the amount of circulating chemotherapy that reaches the hair follicles, protecting them from some of the chemo’s damaging effects.
- Helpful tips for people—like Middleton—undergoing chemotherapy include focusing on five key areas to better cope with the treatment journey. These include focusing on good mental health, maintaining a sense of privacy, managing a healthy diet and exercise, and relying on a caregiver.
- Chemotherapy’s side effects include fatigue, gastrointestinal effects, nausea, and more. Chemo drugs designed to kill cancer cells also impact healthy cells, leading to side effects.
- Chemo can notably cause hair loss. It usually begins about three to four weeks after chemotherapy and continues throughout treatment. Most people can expect regrowth four to six weeks after treatment. If losing your hair is a concern before cancer treatment, know that you have options, such as wigs, hats, wraps, and scarves, to maintain your self-esteem.
- One benefit of maintaining optimal physical and emotional health for those with cancer is they are more likely to endure treatment better and experience fewer side effects, MD Anderson’s Dr. Sairah Ahmed told SurvivorNet.
Kate Middleton, Princess of Wales, says she has been diagnosed with cancer after undergoing abdominal surgery earlier this year. While the mother of three hasn’t revealed specifics regarding her diagnosis – including cancer type – she says she’s undergoing preventative chemotherapy. Chemo can be a grueling experience as its side effects take their toll. However, there are some things cancer patients like Middleton can do to better cope.
Coping With Hair Loss Using Cold Capping Device
“For cancer patients, losing one’s hair can be unbelievably stressful. To start with, the dread of losing one’s hair can lead to some sleepless nights and feelings of anxiety,” psychiatrist Dr. Samantha Boardman tells SurvivorNet.
Read MoreBy constricting blood flow to the scalp, the caps limit the circulating chemotherapy that reaches the hair follicles, protecting them from some of the chemotherapy’s damaging effects. The cold also decreases the activity of the hair follicles, slowing down cell division and making the follicles less affected by the chemotherapy medicine.
While we do not know what Middleton is using for hair preservation, cold capping devices provide an option.
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“This, of course, came as a huge shock,” Middleton said in her Instagram video post.
“Tests after the operation found cancer had been present. My medical team, therefore, advised that I should undergo a course of preventative chemotherapy, and I am now in the early stages of that treatment,” she continued.
Middleton, 42, said going into her abdominal surgery, doctors believed her condition was non-cancerous. However, subsequent tests proved otherwise. She says she’s now focused on her recovery.
“For everyone facing this disease, in whatever form, please do not lose faith or hope. You are not alone,” Middleton said.
Chemotherapy is a common cancer treatment that works by stopping or slowing the growth of cancer cells. Chemo can also help shrink tumors. However, despite its effectiveness, chemotherapy often comes with side effects. Coping with the effects of chemo is easier if patients – like Middleton – have a few things in tow to make it through the treatment journey.
Top 5 Things Middleton Needs to Manage Chemotherapy
Middleton’s chemo journey will be aided with the help of a caregiver, good mental health, a healthy diet, exercise, and privacy.
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Valuing Privacy
Middleton asked for privacy during her emotional video message so she and her family could cope with her cancer diagnosis. Although Middleton shared some aspects of her diagnosis, not everything is known.
Some people battling a disease or cancer are open to sharing their experiences as much as they can, while others prefer to keep it to themselves or close loved ones. SurvivorNet experts say both approaches and everything in between, are valid.
WATCH: Sharing a Diagnosis
“Patients who have just been diagnosed with cancer sometimes wonder how they are going to handle the diagnosis of the cancer in social situations,” psychiatrist Dr. Lori Plutchik explains.
Questions like “How much information should they share and with whom should they share the information?” are things Plutchik says patients take into consideration.
Dr. Plutchik explains, “There is no one right way to handle this diagnosis. People should do what feels right to them.”
A cancer journey can last months to years, which means cancer warriors may be experiencing a lot of uncertainty until they fully understand where their health stands. This uncertainty can influence when a cancer patient is ready to share their diagnosis, Dr. Plutchik further explained.
Dr. Plutchik stresses that those close to a person going through cancer should be respectful of their wishes when it comes to disclosing their diagnosis and seeking support.
Managing Your Mental Health
Psychiatrist Dr. Samantha Boardman suggests that people who are working on their mental health practice positive psychology. Positive psychology focuses on encouraging patients to feel positive and finding what brings a sense of vitality to their lives.
WATCH: Managing your mental health amid a health challenge.
Dr. Boardman explains them as “pathways to embrace your everyday resilience.” In other words, these are tools people who may be struggling with mental health issues can embrace to help maintain a certain sense of positivity. And those positive feelings can go a long way when people are facing a health challenge like a cancer diagnosis.
According to Dr. Boardman, these three wellsprings of vitality are:
- Connecting. This involves how you’re connecting with others and having meaningful interactions. It consists in being a good listener and being engaged with the people around you who you care about.
- Contribution. How are you adding value to the people around you? Are you helping them in ways that feel meaningful to them? This entails contributing/engaging with others in a meaningful way.
- Feeling challenged. Being “positively challenged” could involve learning something new (perhaps by taking a new class or reading an interesting book) and expanding your mind somehow.
“Those are the cores of vitality and the core pathways to enhance your everyday resilience,” Dr. Boardman said.
How Exercise Can Impact Your Chemo Experience
The National Cancer Institute recommends that cancer survivors maintain “some level of physical activity.” The NCI cites a 2018 report by the American College of Sports Medicine International Multidisciplinary Roundtable on Physical Activity and Cancer Prevention and Control, which found “strong evidence that moderate-intensity aerobic training and/or resistance exercise during and after cancer treatment can reduce anxiety, depressive symptoms, and fatigue and improve health-related quality of life and physical function.”
WATCH: Exercising and Cancer
Additional research published in “Cancers” last year noted, “Physical activity has been shown to reduce the side effects of treatment and fatigue in cancer patients.”
“Lack of exercise actually begets fatigue,” Dr. Marleen Meyers, a medical oncologist and Director of the Cancer Survivorship Program at NYU Perlmutter Cancer Center, told SurvivorNet in a previous conversation about how to deal with some of chemo’s most challenging side effects. “So the best treatment for fatigue is exercise. And what we have to do is get people over the hump, to get initial exercise going.” Dr. Meyers treats patients with breast cancer, but she said her advice applies to many other cancers as well.
Keeping a Healthy Diet
Maintaining a healthy weight while undergoing chemotherapy is critically important because it helps the body better endure the chemotherapy medicines.
WATCH: Maintain a Healthy Diet During Chemo
“The cancer patient’s diet is going to be different from the average person’s diet,” Krista Maruschak, a registered dietician at the Cleveland Clinic, tells SurvivorNet.
“This is really going to look like setting up six smaller meals during the day and adding additional calories and protein to these meals where you can, so adding things like olive oil, avocado, different dairy products, hummus, peanut butter, and different sort of nuts,” Maruschak adds.
The goal of the enhanced healthy diet is to boost caloric intake and proteins to optimize the amount of nutrients and calories you’re getting. Although the goal includes adding calories, it’s important to remember not all calories are the same.
Junk foods such as potato chips offer little to no nutritious value. However, healthier alternatives such as nuts, dairy products, olive oil, avocados, and hummus are all healthy fats that will do the trick.
Relying on a Caregiver
Many cancer patients are encouraged to build a support group to help them through their cancer journey. Sometimes, close members of that support group may be caregivers. This particular person may be a spouse, a parent, a sibling, a close friend, or a child. A caregiver often assumes multiple roles to help make their beloved cancer patient’s life easier.
Cancer caregivers may:
- Attend doctor visits with the patient
- Help the patient take notes/ask questions
- Provide transportation to and from treatment
- Accompany the patient during treatment
- Help keep track of side effects
- Link up with a social worker/patient navigator
- Help with day-to-day activities
- Provide emotional support
Caregivers should know that although their cancer warrior relies on them, they also need support from time to time. Social workers and patient advocates may be available and can help guide you through treatment options, financial assistance, and mental health resources.
WATCH: The vital role of patient navigators.
“Patient navigators can function differently at different hospitals,” Dr. Kathie-Ann Joseph, a surgical oncologist at NYU Langone Health’s Perlmutter Cancer Center, told SurvivorNet. We have a really wonderful program at [NYU] where we used lay navigators, meaning they’re not nurses, although you can use nurses or social workers, who pretty much help newly diagnosed cancer patients through the continuum of care.”
Helping Patients Cope with a Cancer Diagnosis
Managing Chemotherapy and Its Side Effects
Chemotherapy is an effective tool for oncologists to help treat cancer by stopping cancerous cells from growing, dividing, and spreading to other organs. Chemo works by traveling through the bloodstream, killing cancerous cells. However, the process also impacts healthy cells, leading to side effects.
Among the notable side effects is hair loss. It usually begins about three to four weeks after chemotherapy and continues throughout treatment.
Coping With Hair Loss
Hair loss occurs because this treatment targets quickly dividing cells throughout the body, including cancer cells and hair cells.
WATCH: Hair loss during chemo.
Most patients can expect regrowth four to six weeks after treatment. However, it is possible when your hair grows back, you may notice some changes in its color and texture. If losing your hair is a concern for you before cancer treatment, know you have options like wigs, hats, wraps, and more.
Other notable symptoms include fatigue, often alongside gastrointestinal side effects, such as nausea. Doctors have many effective medications to combat chemo-induced nausea. “But mitigating that fatigue often depends on the patient,” Dr. Urban said.
“Neuropathy is probably one of the most challenging side effects,” Dr. Urban continued.
Neuropathy results from damage to the peripheral nerves. It usually resolves after chemotherapy treatment, but sometimes symptoms can persist. While it’s typically characterized by numbness or a pins-and-needles sensation in the hands and feet, neuropathy can have several different symptoms, including:
- Weakness in the hands or feet
- Stabbing or burning pain in the hands or feet
- Difficulty gripping, such as when holding a fork
- Difficulty with fine motor skills, such as writing or buttoning a shirt
Nausea and vomiting are common side effects of chemotherapy. When chemotherapy affects the rapidly dividing cells in the stomach lining, the resulting cellular havoc in the gastrointestinal tract can lead to side effects such as nausea and vomiting. However, doctors can help patients mitigate the hit with various medications before, during, and after treatment.
“Part of the chemotherapy prescription includes a set regimen of anti-nausea medications…We also ensure patients have medications at home that they can use should they develop nausea after treatment,” Dr. Urban added.
Tips for Navigating Chemo Side Effects
Doctors don’t have an arsenal of prescription medications to combat fatigue. However, you can do several things to help minimize the hit and restore your energy.
- Exercise: While it may be counterintuitive, physical activity can help alleviate side effects, especially fatigue. “Although ovarian cancer is not common, we often draw upon the experience of patients with breast cancer and colon cancer that have shown that physical activity can not only improve quality of life but may also have beneficial impacts on cancer outcomes,” Dr. Urban says.
- Eat well: Even though nausea may interfere with your ability to eat a healthy diet, it’s essential to ensure you’re eating appropriately, getting enough protein, and not losing weight. Not only will nourishing your body support your recovery, but it may also help you feel more energized.
- Sleep: Want to mitigate fatigue? Be sure to maintain your regular sleep-wake cycle while on treatment. Sticking to a set sleep schedule helps reduce fatigue by ensuring enough hours for your body to heal and restore itself each night. It may also help you recover more quickly by keeping energy levels high during the daytime.
How to Get a Handle on Nausea
Most of these anti-nausea medications last for more than eight hours. One of the infusions commonly used reduces the degree of nausea for up to three days.
Complementary approaches may also be helpful. A few favorites:
Ginger: Studies consistently show that ginger helps alleviate chemotherapy-induced nausea. The powerful herb appears to have an anti-spasmodic effect on the gut. Not a fan of raw ginger? Suck on ginger candy, sip ginger ale, or make a steaming cup of ginger tea.
Pressure bracelets: at your local pharmacy, these bracelets provide consistent pressure on a particular acupressure point on the wrist to reduce nausea.
Deep breathing: Moving air in and out of your lungs with a few deep breaths can help relieve nausea, particularly if you pair deep breathing exercises with meditation. It can also help you relax and release stress and anxiety.
Treating Neuropathy Symptoms
Doctors have several strategies for helping patients deal with this side effect. Once a patient begins experiencing the symptoms of neuropathy, they’ll be carefully monitored to ensure they don’t get worse. Before each chemotherapy infusion, the attending oncologist will assess whether the symptoms have progressed. If the symptoms worsen, they may adjust the dose or delay treatment. They may also try switching to another chemotherapy drug.
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