You will experience a number of emotions from the time you find that lump, and all through the treatment. Anger is very common and sadly we tend to take it out on our loved ones. There are many reasons why we get angry in this situation, it can be caused by an imbalance in the blood sugar level, due to the insulin levels being weak or low, keep an eye on this, it is important and is dealt with on another page.

The Human psyche is a strange phenomenon. It can create all kinds of situations to help us deal with trauma, in serious accidents it can cause total loss of memory, in illness it kicks in to help us deal with our emotions. Anger can be caused by the mind creating a barrier between us and our loved ones, if we are going to die, as we sometimes think we will, the mind can set about making us alienate our loved ones. The theory being that if we make them dislike us, then when we die, they won`t take it too badly. Of course this is nonsense, all it does is make them feel unappreciated, and it makes us feel guilty, but if we understand why we feel angry, then it helps us to control it.

Every now and then I felt I was losing the battle, some people do some don`t. I did feel I would never get back to full health and many a time I felt I couldn`t take any more chemo, because each session made me weaker. I wasn`t checking my blood sugar levels during the treatment, the imbalance was causeing a lot of how I was feeling. I didn`t find out about the diabeties and the symptoms, until 2 weeks after my chemo finally finished.

Tiredness will hit you quite quickly, the chemo will cause this as well, the drugs are designed to kill the tumours, but unfortunatly they also cause all sorts of other problems. Your body will begin to slow down and the consequences are that you will feel lethagic most of the time, just pace yourself and take it easy. If you begin to feel depressed go to see your G.P. as soon as possible, there are a number of very good anti-depressants available, they take about 3 weeks to take 100% effect, so go as soon as you can. Your G.P. will also be able to prescribe you sleeping tablets if required. I got into a regime of sleeping in the afternoon, and it worked well for me.

After you get the chemo most patients may be given steroids to take, and often other drugs to assist the liver to cope with the ejection of the waste chemo. The liver tablets can cause side effects of blurred vision or a rash, always read the instructions which come with the drugs. Steroids are taken for a number of days after chemo to assist the chemo, these can cause an imbalance in the blood sugar level, the signs of diabeties to watch for are: blurred vision, cold Feet, raging thirst, headache, severe tiredness and weight loss. Do not increase your sugar intake to try to put on weight, the weight loss can be caused by a bad diet, side effects of the drugs and possibly diabetes, go to the Dietary tips page for more advise or ask your surgery dietician for advice.

There are many products on the market to combat the side effects, these are available to all patients and are usually free. Patients on cancer treatments are generally exempt from paying for any prescribed drugs or products to combat side effects. financial help and where to get it is dealt with on another page. There are many benefits that you can apply for while you are ill, remember, you have paid your taxes and N.I. contributions over the years, so you are entitled to claim these benefits. These are also dealt with on another page, however they only apply to U.K. based patients, you do not have to be a U.K. tax-payer to claim them.