Okay, it was time to start the chemo...my oncologist explained to me that the meds I would be on this time would not be as harsh as what I endured last year. That sounded pretty good to me cuz he had me on the harshest stuff he thought a body could endure and I really tolerated it well. No nausea, very little pain...I was ready, let's go...I even wore one of my wigs and make up to my first chemo...
It didn't go as well as expected. I had to take 20mg of steroids the night before which kept me up for a couple of days. I had lots of energy and thought it was going pretty well until 3 days later. I was taking treatments on Tuesdays and on Thursday night my body seized up. It felt like a hideous case of arthritis in all my joints. Then my mouth started feeling like hell...I couldn't taste salt at all...anyone who has eaten too many sweets know that after a while it will make you sick to your stomach...everything I ate tasted like sweets and it only took a few days to turn my stomach and make me ill. I not only couldn't eat, I didn't want to. I began getting weak and hurting worse and the first 3 weeks were unbearable. I began dropping weight quickly. My 2nd round of chemo approached quickly and I was dreading it. I had already lost 10lbs and felt weak. The blood tests confirmed that. In all my 8 months of chemo last year, my immunity levels never went down a bit. My first lab this time showed it was totally annihilated and I was immediately put on antibiotics. Three days later it was followed up by a phone call that continuing tests were showing my potassium levels low and I would need pills for that. I picked those up from the pharmacy and about fell over. These suckers were as big as my index finger knuckle and he wanted me to take 2 a day. Are you kiddin' me?!?! Food wouldn't even go down and I was supposed to swallow 2 of these a day?!?! I tried to no avail the first few days and couldn't even get one down so I started experimenting with different ways to take them. Nothing worked and I just began to try to take one. That worked most days. I told the nurse about it my 3rd round of chemo and they explained to me (along with my nurse mother in law) how potassium was vital for brain function....BRAIN...there was that word again that I taught myself to forget about for a while, but if this was a vitamin I needed to help my brain, then back to the drawing board. I began trying to take 2 again...it began to work swallowing them with milk. I also noticed that I was beginning to eat a bit better and that the 3rd round of chemo was alot easier and I only ached for 2 days of the 3 weeks....I was getting better!!! YAY!!!!
It didn't go as well as expected. I had to take 20mg of steroids the night before which kept me up for a couple of days. I had lots of energy and thought it was going pretty well until 3 days later. I was taking treatments on Tuesdays and on Thursday night my body seized up. It felt like a hideous case of arthritis in all my joints. Then my mouth started feeling like hell...I couldn't taste salt at all...anyone who has eaten too many sweets know that after a while it will make you sick to your stomach...everything I ate tasted like sweets and it only took a few days to turn my stomach and make me ill. I not only couldn't eat, I didn't want to. I began getting weak and hurting worse and the first 3 weeks were unbearable. I began dropping weight quickly. My 2nd round of chemo approached quickly and I was dreading it. I had already lost 10lbs and felt weak. The blood tests confirmed that. In all my 8 months of chemo last year, my immunity levels never went down a bit. My first lab this time showed it was totally annihilated and I was immediately put on antibiotics. Three days later it was followed up by a phone call that continuing tests were showing my potassium levels low and I would need pills for that. I picked those up from the pharmacy and about fell over. These suckers were as big as my index finger knuckle and he wanted me to take 2 a day. Are you kiddin' me?!?! Food wouldn't even go down and I was supposed to swallow 2 of these a day?!?! I tried to no avail the first few days and couldn't even get one down so I started experimenting with different ways to take them. Nothing worked and I just began to try to take one. That worked most days. I told the nurse about it my 3rd round of chemo and they explained to me (along with my nurse mother in law) how potassium was vital for brain function....BRAIN...there was that word again that I taught myself to forget about for a while, but if this was a vitamin I needed to help my brain, then back to the drawing board. I began trying to take 2 again...it began to work swallowing them with milk. I also noticed that I was beginning to eat a bit better and that the 3rd round of chemo was alot easier and I only ached for 2 days of the 3 weeks....I was getting better!!! YAY!!!!
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