First Month of Treatment

I was put on protocol UKALL 2003 REGIMEN B- INDUCTION and started with 48 hours of hydration. In this month I had 3 bonemarrow aspirations,3 doses of chemo in the spine, 2 lots daunoxone (instead of daunorubicin),2 injections of peg asparaginase and 4 doses of vincristine. I was meant to have 5 doses ofvincristine but this drug was affecting my liver function too much so they left one out and on at least 2 of them they had to give a reduced dose. For the first month I was also on a steroid - dexamethsone.The worst bit for me was that the steroids and vincristine affected my muscle  tone so over the course of a weekend I found it hard to walkup stairs and to get out of a chair without help.I am stillhaving trouble with this now ( 6 months later).The seroids make you very hungry so you put on weight but this was soon lost.

Another side effect of chemo is that you loose your hair. As I had shoulder length hair this was cut shorter. It took time for it to come out and the back of my hair got all matted where I had rubbed it on the pillow in bed. My Mum then cut it all off! It felt stange at first but then you soon get used to it.No Nits and you can just wipe it clean with a baby wipe!!!!

The drugs had affected the balance in my salt levels. As I  only needed to be monitored for this then I was transfered to a hospital nearer  to my home. I spent 5 days there before going home.