Side Effects Schmide Effects

I’m up early again today. I’ve been up since 4:30am. I just couldn’t sleep anymore. I suppose this is a bit of a side effect from all the meds.

Side effects. When Justin and I went to “Chemo 101” class- we were given what I refer to as my “chemo binder.” It has all the info they wanted us to know about treatment including PAGES AND PAGES OF SIDE EFFECTS. By the time we got to the 4th drug’s side effects Justin and I were basically just laughing- because it’s just so much. Many of the side effects for each drug overlap but most of them are nausea, diarrhea, headaches, fatigue, hairloss, etc.

So how am I fairing? The good news- is that I think I had a pretty good response to my fist chemo- both in terms of how Carl responded (he’s very tiny now! I really have to push around to find him) and how I was affected by the treatment.

I feel pretty good. My main lingering side effect was restlessness- which we determined is from one of my nausea meds- so I’ve stopped taking it and already feel more clear headed and less restless! The other main side effect was/is the brain fog which seems to be a little better off the med but will linger around as long as I’m on chemo (and beyond for a while, most likely).

During the chemo itself I really didn’t have any side effects. One weird taste in my mouth during my “T” drug was about it. I also was on Ativan to control anxiety which I’ll do each time.

After- the brain fog was immediate on Friday. I didn’t feel comfortable driving to my post-chemo shot. Otherwise Friday was fine. Saturday and Sunday- days 2 & 3, were my rough days. I just felt SO FATIGUED and slept most of the days away. Especially Saturday. Sunday I was in and out of consciousness during football games, lol. I was taking anti-nausea meds the whole time and though I felt hungry- I was only able to eat toast for days 2-4. After that I slowly felt better and was able to eat more regular food.

The other main side effect? Diarrhea. This is from the “P” drug in my TCHP treatment, mostly. This is one of my targeted therapies that I will be on a full year. Though it’s not chemo…it has some “characteristics” of chemo like tummy issues and hair loss.

Fun times.

Oh and hair loss…mine is thinning out. Usually people have to shave it around day 14 and I am on day 13 so I imagine it will be happening soon. I wish I could not be bald, of course, but it’s a small price to pay for LIVING, so I’ll deal. Lots of cute beanies and earrings! Maybe I’ll get lucky and keep my eye brows/lashes (some get lucky but given my year I won’t bet on it!).

Today is Wednesday and tomorrow is MOVING DAY! If you’re on Facebook you may have seen we got the keys to the new house last night so we went over after dinner to run around and take some measurements….we need a new TV and needed to see how big the space is (it’s huge- so that makes things easy). We also found that the old owner left the washer and dryer- SCORE! Merry Christmas to us. And…our sweet realtor bought us a beautiful bench for our new front patio.

Maybe 2019 is looking up- right at the end? Only 13 more days to go…