eli5: Why cant they anesthetize chemo patients so they don’t feel the pain from chemotherapy?
In: Biology
I was on Arsenic Trioxide and All-Trans Retinoic Acid for Acute Promyeloytic Leukaemia. As others have said, it’s not exactly painful at the time (your experience may vary), but the longer term side effects are what bother you.
Oddly enough the ATRA caused the worst side effects I had REALLY bad headaches caused by the ATRA increasing my intercranial pressure. It also caused my skin to dry out and become really sensitive.
The only issue I personally had during actual treatment (excluding my induction treatment when I was very unwell) was it messed with my sense of taste, so eating during my infusion was always a bad idea.
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