I do hope these blog posts will help someone facing chemo for the first time. I'm trying to describe my feelings as they come and go with some of the side effects that are not the ones listed and expected!
Today I'm so much better after a reasonable night's sleep. Yesterday my mind was unhinged, I was on a steroid high. I collected a lot of abdominal fluid in the 2 days since chemo so that, while hungry, I had nowhere inside to put the meal! If I bent forward I would tend to regurgitate some food. This was not vomiting as I have not felt sick or nauseous at all. Today a lot of fluid has already gone and I'm much more comfortable. Breakfast found its usual place and is still there.
I think the combination of extra steroid, -the dexamethasone- and the antiemetic, -Ondansetron, how is one supposed to remember these awful names?- thoroughly upset me. As had felt absolutely no nausea throughout the chemo, I said 'thank you' to the Ondan. and didn't take what should have been my final dose last night. This also meant that I could take my night dose of Tramadol that has been settling me for sleep in recent days up to chemo. So I took a dose of tramadol at bedtime, was still a bit restless and took a second at 2am. I slept very well thereafter with only, I think, two toilet visits at long intervals until 0730 this morning.
I'm glad to say I am so much more comfortable. No pains just discomforts that are so much less that they's don't matter. I can sit! Though I still prefer the extra cushion on a normal chair. I can walk, I can climb the stairs quickly carrying two cups of tea, -my usual teaboy first job! Though I feel a bit sleepy and unsteady after the two tramadol last night, my mind is calm and I could cope with the puzzles my wife and I Iike to do in bed before getting dressed. Yesterday I couldn't cope with numbers at all and I kept forgetting things or putting them in the wrong places. Something, in the chemo, drugs, or RT is working at last and I feel I'm getting better.
Of course I have a long way to go. This is my first cycle, and many side effects may come along later in the 3 weeks. I will have to look out for the infection risk very soon but I hope to go food shopping tomorrow after less tramadol at night. So, I'm cheerful, reasonably rational and feeling well today. Almost discomfort- free but playing it safe by taking ibuprofen with meals. Thanks for listening and I hope it helps someone on the journey.
