The side effects of cancer treatments vary from person to person, so it is impossible to say how it will effect you as an individual. What I can tell you about are the most common side effects, which I have been told about by cancer patients or experienced myself.

Hair loss is one of the most common, however it isn`t a be all and end all, it depends on the chemo drugs used, radiotherapy and chemotherapy tablets ( used on low-grade tumours) will not generally make your hair fall out. This is usually only a side effect of intravenious injection of certain chemo-drugs, and even this will depend on the particular drug, not all the drugs will contain chemicals which will make you lose your hair.

The hair is a very resilient part of the body and if you lose your hair, don`t worry, I can assure you it will usually grow back. This will also, in some cases mean body hair loss as well. The good news for men (and a few women I know) is that these drugs also effect the facial hair, so you will not have to shave as often.

Lethargy or tiredness is common with most of the treatments including radiotherapy, but effects chemo patients much more. It is important not to tire yourself out too much. As the treatment progresses, so to will the intensity of the side effects, one of the things I found hard to come to terms with, was being tired out so quickly. The good news is that there are many proven products on the market to help you over most of the side effects.

Sickness is another common side effect of chemo. It doesn`t effect everyone though, I wasn`t sick once in all the 7 months of my chemo, but I was an exception to the rule. Many patients I spoke to suffered greatly with it. Before you are given your chemo drugs, you will first be given anti-sickness drugs, these may be given as an injection or a tablet form, you will also get anti-nausea tablets to take if you feel nausious, again I never needed them.

A raging thirst usually follows about 3 days after the Chemo and it makes you want to drink gallons of fluids. This is caused by the steroids that are given to patients to take for a few days after the Chemo. The steroids are used to help the chemo drugs to work better. Steroids may cause your insulin production to be affected, it will either shut production down or make you produce a weak solution. This will also result in weight loss, so if you continue to lose weight, that may be a sign of diabeties, don`t panic, tell your nurse or doctor, you may need tablets, or in extreme cases Injections of insulin. Diabeties is dealt with on another page.

Insulin is produced by an organ above the pancreus. We need insulin to unlock the pathway from the blood to the muscles and organs, insulin takes the energy that the body makes from fats and sugar, and feeds the body. If insulin is absent, then the energy stays in the blood causeing a High Blood sugar level or diabeties, this is what diabetics suffer from. The blood will want to reject the sugar so it turns the energy into ketones, which makes you thirsty so you drink lots of fluid to get rid of the ketones. Therefore, all the energy does is simply go through the body, and doesn`t do anything except leave a high sugar level, which can cause a coma and death, but only in extreme cases so don`t panic.

Do NOT take a bath on your own when you are feeling lethargic or tired, do not drive a car either. Sometimes you feel like you can walk a mile, but after 50 metres or so tiredness can quickly set in, so just use common sense when you are on chemo or radiotherapy. Remember you are ill and it will take it`s toll, life isn`t a race when you are ill, so don`t treat it as one. As my daughter says " chill out". My moments of hghs and lows, hair loss and regrowth, weight loss and gain have been filmed, and can be viewed in full as a video diary covering the entire 9 months of my chemo treatment, and recovery on the DVD/VIDEO.