What Chemotherapy Was Really Like for Me

My Weekly Chemotherapy Schedule

When I first began chemotherapy, I thought I had a basic understanding of what it would be like.

Doctors explain the medications. People talk about the side effects. But the reality is that chemotherapy is something you don’t truly understand until you’re the one sitting in the treatment chair.

For me, treatment quickly settled into a rhythm.

Every Thursday, I would go in for chemotherapy. Before the treatment started, the nurses gave me several pre-medications, steroids, allergy medicine, anti-nausea drugs, and other medications designed to help my body handle what was coming.

Then the chemotherapy would begin.

The nurses were incredible, calm, compassionate, and steady in a room filled with people navigating their own difficult journeys.

The Weekly Cycle

For six months, chemotherapy became part of my weekly routine.

Thursday was treatment day.

I usually felt okay when I left the clinic because of the medications they gave beforehand. But by the time the weekend arrived, the crash would begin.

By Friday, my energy started to fade.

Saturday and Sunday were usually the hardest days. My body felt heavy and exhausted, and even simple tasks required more effort than usual.

By Monday, I slowly began to feel like myself again.

And then I would go back to work.

Working gave my week a sense of normalcy. It reminded me that life was still moving forward, even in the middle of treatment.

Then Thursday would come again, and the cycle would start all over.

The Support That Carried Me

One thing I will never forget from those treatment days is the support I had around me. My friends never let me go to chemotherapy alone.

Some of them have been in my life since second grade. They sat beside me in treatment rooms, drove me to appointments, and reminded me that I didn’t have to face cancer by myself.

Those moments of friendship meant more than I can fully put into words.

The “Red Devil”

After the weekly chemotherapy treatments, I went through four rounds of what many cancer patients call the “Red Devil.”

The drug is formally known as doxorubicin, also called Adriamycin. It’s part of a class of chemotherapy drugs known as anthracyclines, developed from compounds originally discovered in certain Streptomyces bacteria. These medications work by interfering with the DNA inside cancer cells, preventing them from growing and dividing.

Those treatments happened every three weeks, and they were harder on my body than the weekly chemotherapy had been.

By that point, the exhaustion was very real.

But something else had grown too, determination.

When you’re going through cancer treatment, you learn to take things one step at a time.

One treatment at a time.

The Unexpected Things Chemotherapy Changes

One of the strangest ways chemotherapy affected me was through food.

After treatments, my friends would sometimes take me out to lunch. It became something we looked forward to, a small moment of normal life in the middle of treatment.

But even now, months later, there are certain foods I still can’t bring myself to eat.

Bundt cakes.
Mexican food.
Cobb salads.
Root beer floats.

Those meals are forever tied to those early days after chemotherapy.

Our bodies remember more than we expect.

Small Things That Helped

During treatment, I discovered that small things that helped my body relax could make a big difference.

One of the most helpful things for me was simply soaking in warm water.

After long weeks of chemotherapy, sitting quietly in a hot tub became one of the few moments when my body could truly relax. The warmth helped soothe sore muscles, ease pain in my hands from chemo-related neuropathy.

Sometimes it was only fifteen minutes, but it helped my body reset.

There were also a few simple comfort items that helped me through treatment and recovery.

If you’re walking through chemotherapy yourself, here are a few things that helped me during that season:

• Soaking in warm water to relax sore muscles
• Soft blankets for treatment days
• Electrolyte drinks to stay hydrated
• Simple comfort items that made recovery days easier