1 & 2 + 7 = 9!

Bad Math? New Math? or Chemo Brain?

"Chemo#1" and "Chemo#2" are the entries in my smartphone calendar for the Monday (1 day) and Tuesday (1 day) of chemotherapy sessions past and upcoming.

So today is 7 days after Chemo#1 and Chemo#2; that makes 9, right?

So what, if any, side effects did I experience this past week, you may be asking, or wondering. And, more importantly, "How do I feel?"

As mentioned previously there was the constipation the chemo nurse warned me about. It got it resolved but I don't know if it was due to being proactive with the Senna-S tablets, too many red grapes, or too much cantaloupe late one night, or the combination of all. Now that's TMI! Still learning if this is a side effect that will be ongoing or one more common immediately following the two days of infusion. Time will tell!


We're also encouraged to drink LOTS of fluids, and in particular, water. Nice of Maverick to have their X-Large fountain drink on sale for $1 so I can use that 44-oz. cup as my watering hole here at home. My goal is to go through two of those containers a day, and when successful -- it goes through me all night. I remind myself this is a good thing. One of my chemo's is hard on the kidneys so I use that as my incentive to drink plenty of water.

It was more difficult to drink that water when, by Tuesday night, it had a bad metallic taste. Cleaned out the container and tried again but it was the same way. Okay, a confirmed side effect that continued for another day or two. I didn't notice it much with food, but the water?! Nasty. Even tried using my favorite Crystal Light punch over all that ice. Still nasty. If you grew up in the 1950's and ever drank out of those aluminum tumblers (that even back then I thought made fluids taste bad) you know what I mean. Fortunately by Friday or Saturday that had gone away, but another weird thing had not...

...Calling all chemists. Is it possible for ice to be warm? That may sound like an odd question but for several days last week the water in that 44 ounces of metallic-ness never did feel very cold: through the straw, in my mouth, or going down my throat. And this, mind you, was with the cup loaded with ice and then water added to seep through the cubes; ice and water frequently reloaded to keep it all topped off. Always tons of ice in that cup. Compared to yesterday and today when that cup of ice water was brrrr cold to drink, it just never tasted or felt very cold last week. Weird. Curious to see if that happens in the next round.

Another thing. In the 'old' days I could often go until 3pm or 4pm without eating and feel fine. These aren't the 'old' days anymore. For the past week (although I haven't noticed it as much today) it was helpful to always keep 'something' on my stomach. I never had that nauseated blarch feeling or quesy stomach thing, but maybe eating frequently stopped that from happening. Tried not eating breakfast yesterday--that was a mistake. Survived, but won't let it happen again. We're encouraged to eat 6 smaller meals a day, each including a protein, rather than 3 large ones so I worked toward that goal. Breakfast in the morning, 2 hours later a greek yogurt, 2 hours later lunch something, 2 hours later a piece of string cheese, 2 hours later a small dinner and then just before bed usually a piece of toast (too late at night for me and protein). Sheesh. This cancer thing is hard work!

I'm now into the two weeks of the chemo cycle when my immune system is most compromised. Ulta frequent hand washings and hand sanitizer have not been my habit so my guess is it'll take awhile to being vigilant about doing that and having the sanitizer available to make sure others around me use it. Am also to stay away from big crowds and sick people during this time; okay no Sam's Club on Saturday, but maybe tomorrow.

My energy level is good and although not much was accomplished last week I've decided it was because being lazy is a choice. I chose to be lazy last week. Mostly because it was too hot to work outside, and maybe a little bit of me decided I'd earned it. So there. 

As for the 'tiredness' and 'fatigue' my C-Dr says is coming...I'm content to wait.

And really, I do feel good.


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