Chemo #2 has gone pretty similar to #1 and that is a good thing. I worked on Wednesday and Thursday and felt basically normal, although I did rest more than normal in the afternoons. Thursday night we went out to dinner and I felt good.
Back at home I was tired and started to feel the blood pumping through my veins again. My whole body feels heavy. Did you know your finger tips can feel heavy? Like you don't even want to wiggle them. I also was a little achy but not terrible. I get aches in my ears and jaw and I just kind of feel tender everywhere. Not so tender it's hurts to be touched, but I notice it more or something like that. That night I had weird dreams that I don't really remember except I know there was one where I was trying to wake myself and/or Juan up... I know I was struggling to scream and yell but I couldn't make a sound and I couldn't move. Other than that I slept ok. The cat may have jumped on me once which I did not appreciate.
I had already planned to take Friday off of work and spent the morning sleeping and reading in my bed. Finally I got up and took a shower and ate some food and felt more alive again. I may have initiated an attempt to shave my head right down to the scalp, a task which after a few extremely awkward and very uncomfortable strokes I decided to abandon. I may or may not have a sweet bald spot (or four) on my head. Sorry, no pictures for you. That afternoon Beth and I went to see a movie. We went to "Still Alice" - we knew it was going to be sad. We decided it would be ok because we could feel sad about someone else's predicament (it's about a 50 year old woman who has early onset alzheimer's and yes it was sad but also very good). There was one part where the main character tells her husband she just wishes she had cancer. Beth and I looked at each other, and I whispered that I had just been thinking I'd definitely rather have my own/cancer problem that have what this woman had. It's all relative and things could pretty much always be worse.
Saturday, I felt pretty good again. I took it easy around the house all day and was up for stopping by the dinner club with our friends that night. We didn't even have to worry about finding a babysitter, so that was a plus. It was fun to visit with friends and they had some pretty entertaining games lined up for the evening. Plus they are all super nice to me and tell me how cute I look in my hat and/or bald head. I can also get out of any activities that I don't want to do because... you know... the cancer.
Today, I want to take a walk because I didn't do very good at that the last couple days. I just had a nice breakfast with lots of protein and I'm feeling quite good. I am so thankful that I haven't had severe side effects like so many people must have. It makes me curious how the same chemo drugs can effect people so differently. What is it in us that makes our bodies behave differently to the same chemicals? Obviously nausea is a common side effect, we've all heard it/seen it in media, and my doctors, nurses, and pharmacist all talked to me about it quite a lot with respect to my specific drugs, yet I have been lucky not to experience it. If it wasn't at least moderately expected, I wouldn't have two different prescriptions (Zofran and Compazine) on hand to combat it. There was even a third prescription (Ativan) which I turned down. The way it's worked out, I'm glad my doctors didn't instruct me to take the anti-nausea medication prior to any symptoms the way some do. I was told to start taking the Zofran only at the first sign of nausea (but don't wait if you feel yucky at all!!!)... if that wasn't cutting it, then take the other one. So far, I haven't had to take any of it. If I had been taking either of those without symptoms, then I would have been dealing with their side effects (constipation, anyone?) for no reason, but I wouldn't know any different. I don't really like taking pills so I didn't want to take anything I didn't need to and it's nice my oncologist is on the same page with me.
Of course, they do give me a little bag of anti-nausea pre-medication (Kytril) the day of chemo and I take a steroid (Dexamethasone) the day before, day of, and day after chemo, which has anti-nausea properties in addition to lessening the chance of a reaction, which is the main reason I have to take it. Anyway, I guess it's just like the whole cancer thing in general. Stop questioning it and wondering why, what if, etc and just accept it. And in the case of side effects, that is very easy because it's such a good thing!
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