Take all your medication

One piece of advice I wish I'd known when I started chemo was to take all the medication the hospital gives you. Most side effects are best resolved before they happen rather than afterwards. For example, once you start being sick, the anti-sickness medication doesn't really do much, and once you have mouth sores, they are trickier to treat. So, take everything the hospital gives you for the full course. Use the mouthwash every day all the way through, take the anti-sickness medication even when you don't feel sick and this pre-emptive approach does seem to work. I waited too long after my first chemo to take anything and then developed horrible side effects. During the rest, I took everything I was given and felt a lot better. Amanda.

Now I am the opposite of Amanda, I did what I was told and took all the tablets that I was told to take. Unfortunately, I didn't get given the Amend anti sickness after my first chemo session so even with the 12 hourly anti sickness meds, my first night after chemo no1 was pretty horrendous and I was continually vomiting for 13 hours. This was the one and only time that I was sick throughout my whole treatment as I was given the wonder drug Amend to take before my 2nd treatment. You take one tablet 1 hour before chemo and then one on each of the following two mornings after chemo. If you are about to start on your chemo journey and are already aware that you are a sicky person, then make sure you ask for the Amend beforehand!
As for the mouthwash, I started to use this twice a day, one week before I even started having chemo and I have not suffered from one single mouthsore or ulcer and I have just recently had my very last chemo session (2days ago). Debbie.