Chemotherapy can be hard, there’s really no way around that. But one of the things this community does so well is share the small, practical things that help make the experience of navigating blood cancer a little more manageable, so I thought it might be a good idea to gather some of those tips in one place.
When I went through chemotherapy, I put together what I called a chemo bag; a collection of things I brought to chemo sessions or kept close during treatment at home.
Here’s what was in mine, to get us started:
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A water bottle, as I quickly found out that staying hydrated really mattered and impacted how I felt the day after treatment
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Lip balm for the dry, chapped mouth that often comes with the territory
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Face and body moisturiser to tackle dry skin (my chemo ward was very dry, anyone else’s?)
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Books (my Kindle was a real help!), small craft projects, and my Nintendo Switch for the longer stretches of time
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Notebook and pen, in case anything vaguely interesting crosses my mind (including questions for my haem team)
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Ginger chew sweets for nausea and the ‘metal mouth’ that I experienced
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A big, fluffy blanket, a beanie hat and cosy socks as, even though the room was always warm, I found I got chilly sitting still for so long.
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A spare phone charger and charging block (genuinely non-negotiable)
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Antibacterial hand gel and disposable face masks to help reduce infection risk
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Biotene mouth products alongside soft bristle toothbrushes to help prevent mouth sores, as recommended to me by a fellow Hodgkin Lymphoma patient who said mouth sores were to be expected with treatment (as always, please check with your team before using!)
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Headphones, out of consideration for fellow patients
What about you? Whether you’re currently going through treatment, have been through it before, or are about to start, what does/would your list look like?
Ceri - Blood Cancer UK Support Services
P.S. This is something we’d like to do more of - tapping into the collective wisdom of this community once a month or so with threads like this. What do you think?