By Brijesh Ghelani

Chemotherapy, the very words themselves strike terror into the heart of most every cancer victim. Not that the treatments themselves aren't affective, often they work very successfully, however with many people the first thing they think of is how sick they have heard people get with this form of treatment. I've heard it said that some people claim that they are sick for several days, better for one or two and then go back for more treatments only to repeat the cycle over again.

Chemotherapy itself is the treatment of combating a disease, in this case cancer, through the use of a select group of chemicals which combat and kill fast dividing blood cells. Since fast division is something which is often attributed to various forms of cancer, chemotherapy is often the treatment of choice.

Chemotherapy is also used to combat other diseases, including multiple sclerosis, dermatomyositis, polymyositis, lupis and rheumatoid arthritis.

Another nightmare aspect that the words chemotherapy bring to mind is that of hair loss. I'm sure we've all heard the stories about someone running their fingers through their hair to smooth it back only to have it start falling out in clumps, or perhaps getting up in the morning to find that their hair stays behind on their pillow.

The thing that isn't emphasized as much as these nightmare aspects is that chemotherapy quite often helps in three different ways for which it may be used. The first is curative. Chemotherapy often does prove successful in eliminating the body of cancer, thereby curing the person, secondly, in prolonging the person's life by slowing down the cancer from its invasion of the person's body and thirdly, in a palative way, by helping to improve the so called quality of the person's life, thereby emphasizing quality rather than quantity.

Chemotherapy is usually delivered through the means of intravenous injection. This method has improved through the years until today it often is delivered through isolated infusion, which simply means that it is given in a concentrated dose that is aimed right at the afflicted area, rather than also attacking the entire system, which means it is less apt to destroy good cells that are fast acting as right along with the cancerous cells which it is intended to destroy.

The so-called nightmare aspects of chemotherapy can be combated. The studies conducted by many medical professionals have led them to recommend that their patients eat frequent small meals, rather than the usual three meals a day. Many also recommend the drinking of clear liquids or of ginger tea. The important thing to remember is that chemotherapy helps in most cases and that the adverse effects usually stop shortly when the treatments are ended.

As for the hair loss, the hair does grow back. This has never proven to be a permanent thing. A strange aspect of this growing back is that it sometimes grows back curly, even though it was straight to begin with. This result is often rather jokingly referred to as a 'chemo perm'.

Chemotherapy is a good thing. It is intended to and often does help with the purpose for which it is used. This is one nightmare that can be the answer to a person's best dreams.