How chemotherapy might affect your everyday life

Even though chemotherapy treatment can cause unpleasant side effects, some people still manage to lead an almost normal life during their treatment. The chemotherapy may make you feel better, by relieving the symptoms of the cancer. Even if you feel unwell during your course of treatment, you may find that you recover quickly between courses and can take up your usual activities again as you begin to feel better.

You may be able to go to work and carry on with your social activities as usual, but may need to take rests during the day or shorten your working hours.

Some people feel very tired during chemotherapy. This is quite normal and may be caused by the drugs themselves and your body fighting the disease, or may simply be because you are not sleeping well. For someone who normally has a lot of energy, feeling tired all the time can be very frustrating and difficult to cope with. The hardest time may be towards the end of the course of chemotherapy.

Try to cut down on any unnecessary activities and ask your family or friends to help you with jobs such as shopping and housework. It is important not to fight your tiredness. Give yourself time to rest and if you are still working see if it is possible to reduce your hours while you are having treatment. If you are having problems with sleeping, your GP may be able to prescribe sleeping tablets for you. Cancerbackup can send you information on dealing with sleeping problems.

Social life

While you are having chemotherapy you may find that you cannot do some of the things you used to take for granted. But you needn't stop your social life completely. Depending on how well you feel, there is no reason to stop going out or visiting friends, especially if you can plan ahead for social occasions. For example, if you are going out for the evening, you could make sure that you get plenty of rest during the day so you have more energy for the evening. If you are planning to go out for a meal, you may find it helpful to take anti-sickness tablets before you go and to choose your food carefully from the menu.

If you have an important social event (such as a wedding) coming up, discuss with your doctor whether the time of your treatment can be changed so that you can feel as well as possible for the occasion.

Alcohol

For most people, having the occasional alcoholic drink will not affect the chemotherapy treatment, but it is best to check with your doctor beforehand.

Holidays and vaccinations

If you are going abroad on holiday, it is important to remember that you should not have any 'live virus' vaccines while you are having chemotherapy. These include polio, measles, rubella (German measles), MMR (the triple vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella), BCG (tuberculosis), yellow fever and typhoid medicine. There are, however, vaccines that you can have, if necessary. If you are travelling abroad, ask your doctor whether you should have other vaccines such as diphtheria, tetanus, flu, hepatitis B, hepatitis A, rabies, cholera or typhoid injection.

Sometimes people who have, or have had, cancer can find it difficult to get travel insurance to travel abroad. Cancerbackup has a list of insurance companies that may offer travel insurance for people with cancer. You may find it difficult to get travel insurance while you are actually having chemotherapy, but once your treatment is complete this is usually less of a problem.