I have just completed a 5 day intensive course of targeted therapy with cladribine for my surprise hairy cell leukaemia. It wasn't terrible, but certainly wasn't something I'm going to be keen to do again in a few years.
Because of the high risk of tumour lysis syndrome (basically when a bunch of cancer cells all die at once from the chemo and release a lot of toxins causing serious medical impact), I stayed in hospital for the full course so they could monitor me and give continuous IV hydration to reduce likelihood of trouble.
Got home early Saturday afternoon and the first thing I did was take a nap - for 5 hours. Then went to bed for the night at 9.30 and slept a full 12 hours. Sunday was a 1 hr nap and 10.5 hours overnight. Hospitals are not very relaxing - I got very little sleep there between the IV machine beeping for various reasons every couple of hours (eg they forgot to turn the power on, so flat battery; air in line, fluids low etc), being constantly woken to have temp and BP recorded and all the thoughtful visitors who left their patient's room to make loud phone calls - right poutside my room I can tell you there was one little boy called Lachlan who was clearly delighted but suspicious when his harried mother told him he could make toast and ice cream for dinner, but not to be greedy
Daily blood tests or sometimes more as the staff stuffed up in multiple ways (eg on vial was coagulated before it could be tested, forgot to get the full number of vials, used the wrong vial) are the final insult to injury. Between that and the cannulas (and the leukaemia too I guess), I'm covered in painful bruises. I'm now on blood tests every second day, so that's a bit better, but I actually cried today at the thought of having to go do that. I don't normally mind blood tests that much, and have been a blood donor (not any more).
Main discomforts at this time are the absolutely foul taste in the mouth that makes everything taste like mud and rust. Nausea. Skin off my palate and mouth ulcers on my gums and tongue. None of which is conducive to eating or even drinking water. Felling quite low.
Plus I have an absolute F@cktonne of medicines to take - antibiotics, anti fungals, antivirals, allopurinol (anti toxin), three types of anti nausea meds plus my usual statin and BP medication. It's a lot.
Onwards and upwards.