Life in Chemo: A Totally Incomplete Guide

We could be talking a 30 minute visit, barely enough time to settle into your book, or an 8 hour day that sucks so much. There’s a lot to do, and a long stretch of not doing anything to plan for. Hopefully, you’ll get to enjoy a few beautiful sunrises along the way.

This article will go over your go-bag, snacks, what to wear, and ice packs.

Activities

I’ll admit, I pretty much slept through the first cycles of chemo. I would sit down and get loaded up with Benadryl and mostly doze for the next 6 hours. I’d wake up when the nurses came in to change bags and needed to ask my name, birthday, and scan my wrist band. But for the most part, I was rolling. I listened to some pod casts and watched a baking show or two during my more alert hours. My partner woke me for regular snacks.

Every chair or room I was in had an outlet within reach. My partner mostly worked on their laptop while I slept. But check before you settle in. Some of our set ups included a table to work at, but not all. If you’re going to bring a tray for your laptop to work, I’d recommend this tray style. I had a bad reaction to one of the drugs and the nurses needed my partner out of the way fast. A tray like this, would let them just grab everything and move out of the way safely and quickly.

During my later infusions, I spent my time reading books on my phone, watching Bake Off and started writing these articles! I suspect a good percentage of the guides and checklists and blogs are written while sitting bored and moderately stressed in an infusion chair. My only recommendation is to have something to do, especially something passive to do. I did spend a fair amount of time staring, high, out a window watching the snow fall, but there were plenty of times where it would have been a disaster to have that as my only option. 

Snacks

Bring ’em! Your infusion center might have a great cafeteria or free meal delivery. But if weather is terrible and the hospital kitchen is behind you might get peckish while you sit, and being hungry and not eating while on chemo is generally not good news for your tum. I liked to bring trail mix and granola bars. The infusion center provided me with goldfish crackers upon request, as well.

As soothing as soups are, as healthy as salads, or as satisfying as sandwiches, they can be messy and you don’t want to drop food on your mask or yourself. Sitting around for hours with a mask that smells like catsup and fries: 0 out of 10, do not recommend. 

Ice Packs

This touches on medical so I want to be super clear: I’m not a medical professional and am not making a usage recommendation on ice mittens. Your doctor and pharmacist will let you know if peripheral neuropathy is a risk for you and if ice mittens can mitigate that risk.

If your doctor DOES say “get some ice mittens, they might help mitigate the risks of neuropathy” you can get them off Amazon. These Suzzipads are the ones that I used. They were easy to use and when I was sent a set that was missing the icepack for one mitten, I had a new one on my doorstep the next day. The mittens were huge and the slippers quite snug. This worked great for me because I have small feet and I appreciated the easy on/off of the mittens. The reviews of various mittens on Amazon included fit so some searching will get you the right pair.

Along with the yes or no from your oncologists, you also need to ask how long you’ll need to wear the ice packs for. Only one of my drugs had a neuropathy side effect so I only needed to wear them for about an hour. My mitts stayed cold for about 30 minutes (except for the day I took the chair in the sunshine) so I only needed to change on the mittens once or twice per infusion and sometimes got away with not changing the slippers at all.

Because of a shipping mix up, I had ice packs for 5 mittens and 4 slippers. This was perfect, except for that napping in the sunshine day. I bought a 4.5 quart cooler with a shoulder strap from Target and a bunch of cheap ice packs. To limit the amount of time that the cooler was open, I packed a layer of mittens, then slippers, then mittens, then slippers. In the beginning, I needed my support person to help me with them, but by the end I was doing them on my own.

Depending on your infusion center, the nurses might offer you ice water in a bowl if you forget your ice packs. I am not that badass and am so grateful that my partner didn’t let us forget the ice packs at home. When I started going on my own, I did forget them once. My solution to prevent it from happening again was to put the cooler in front of the door after I packed it. Brain fog is real and super frustrating.

Clothes

Comfort and accessibility is key. You’re going to be sitting in that chair for a loooong time. You also never know if you’re going to end up in an infusion chair even if you’re just going in for an office visit. I wore actual trousers and my wig once on a follow up day and ended up needing fluids for 2 hours. I was so freaking uncomfortable. Sweats or leggings every day.

If you’ve got a port, you want a loose and low neck shirts on infusion day. Your nurses will scold you for wearing a turtle neck. And it’s never fun being scolded by a nurse. If you don’t have a port, loose sleeves or a short sleeve shirt. Since it was winter I had my scarf with me in case I got chilled. Layers, loose necks, and button downs? Whatever you select, I’d recommend dark clothing. It’s easy to get blood on things on infusion days and hard to get it back out.

Go Bag

I had a black, medium sized duffle bag that I designated my “hospital bag”. It included everything that I needed for that day and if I was potentially admitted to the hospital.