Whew! & Two Firsts

Glad this 'chemo week' of side effects is finally over. As promised? As warned? As predicted? by my C-Dr and the chemo nurses during Chemo Class each subsequent round of chemo has side effects worse than the previous and last longer. So, yup, chemo round#3 was a bit more intense and lasted longer. In chemo round#1 I was feeling better by Friday; in chemo round#2 it was Saturday before I felt perkier and for chemo round#3 Sunday was the day I felt more normal. So my conclusion is for each round of chemo those crummy crappy icky side effects will last about a day longer. Bad news for chemo round#4.

I've mentioned to others that chemo round#1 was like a new adventure. Chemo round#2 was a chance to compare with the previous and as such also provided a way to prepare for chemo round#3.  With that in mind I'd wondered if the Senekot tablets I've taken (actually a generic, Senna-S) for the constipation have contributed in some way to the funky feeling I have--a feeling I haven't yet found the words to describe. So the 1st First is that I decided to wait a day, this chemo round#3, before taking the Senna-S to see if that funky feeling arrived about the same time as before or arrived with the Senna-S. The problem with that is it extends by a day the icks of constipation. So...my plan in preparing for that was to start on Sunday and 'front load' my diet with really high fiber foods, and food combinations my body reacts to in a very un-constipative way (I like inventing words!), in anticipation of my decision to delay a day the medication. Guess what? Based on the results my conclusion is it's the Senna-S tablets that cause the weird feeling I get. Better yet, the constipation didn't seem as bad as before so in all likelihood there will be 'front loading' for chemo round#4. We'll see if history repeats itself...in the good way.

Well, that was probably more than you wanted to know!
Or, welcome to my world.

The 2nd First took place Friday afternoon...my first time taking an anti-nausea pill. Even though I didn't have that urp urp blarch feeling or the need to carry a bucket around with me there was just that very unsettled crappy cruddy icky feeling I'd felt the past two rounds during 'chemo week' and had told Nancy the P.A. about a few weeks ago during my NADIR visit. As she had recommended I decided to go ahead and take the pill and see if it made me feel better. Yes! Well, it wasn't a 180-degree about face and improvement, but it did make me feel somewhat better. Another pill just before bedtime was also helpful and the final anti-nausea pill early Saturday afternoon. Nice to know.

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