Page 3 More Chemo The Goods For six months, every two weeks was a round of chemo. Each round began on a Wednesday, sitting in a chair at the oncologist's office while getting a transfusion of 5FU, oxaliplatin, and leucovorin. Thursday was more of the same. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday morning I got to wear the fanny pack 5FU pump thing again. This treatment made me very tired over the weekend and during the next few days. Eventually I almost felt normal just in time for the next round of chemo to begin. Side effects for me included fatigue, mild nausea, cold intolerance particularly of hands and face, and numbness in hands and feet. Long-term side effects inlcude hand and feet numbness; as of this writing I cannot touch-type or play the piano as well as previously. Writing with a pencil is a bit sloppy, and I must be very deliberate about tasks such as tieing shoes and buttoning shirts. Bowel Obstructions Following any abdominal surgery, adhesions are a possibility. This is where your bowels adhere to some scar tissue, disrupting their normal function. The bowels can twist on themselves, and via other gymnastics can completely obstruct the flow through your digestive system. Your bowels then back up with food and become distended. This results in excruciating pain and vomiting. Then you go to the hospital where you receive morphine and an IV to prevent dehydration. If fortune smiles on you, the obstruction will resolve w/o surgical intervention, and after a few hours or a day you'll feel fine again. As it turns out, I had many adhesions and obstructed several times; however, surgery was never required to fix things. Hopefully you won't have this problem because in many ways it is like giving birth. One positive from the bowel obstructions: this let us know that adhesions were present and that eventually they would have to be dealt with surgically. In my case I was able to wait until the second surgery that would "take down" my ileostomy. During each obstruction I received a CT scan, and these helped identify the location of what turned out to be several adhesions. Work During this time I was able to continue working as a programmer/engineer reasonably well.   Lesson Learned Cancer, surgery, and long-term chemo can be very depressing. My moods changed in ways I had never before experienced, and to avoid shooting myself in the head, I began taking the antidepressant Lexapro and drinking a bottle of wine daily. This worked for me. It may or may not work for you. (I discontinued the drugs and booze a few months after the conclusions of my ordeal.) Repetition... The biggest variable in your treatment is your surgeon. Make sure your surgeon is the best and a specialist. YOU must take charge.