The most important thing to remember is to listen to your body. If you feel tired, take a rest. Usually, the feeling will pass in a hour to an hour and you will be able to continue with your usual activities. Balancing periods of rest with light exercise helps speed recovery and prevents muscle wasting that can result from too much bed rest. If anemia becomes a serious problem and it limits continuation of cancer treatment, transfusions may be necessary.
Chemotherapy can also affect the blood cells which are important to stop bleeding.
These are called platelets and a drop in platelets can cause bruising and bleeding. In many instances if this becomes particularly dangerous platelet transfusions are given. Most often delaying further chemotherapy will allow the platelets to recover and treatment can then continue. Other blood cells affected by chemotherapy are the white cells which protect you from infection. When these become very low or disappear, patients are prone to pick up the colds and flu of people around them, or more serious infections with bacteria and fungi that would under ordinary circumstances would not have been a problem.