As if it’s only been 7 days since I had my first chemo cycle. This is along one so settle in.
This shit is guna take some stamina to fight through 6 more times of this. The thought of the effects being cumulative its literally too much to take in. So, we’ll go through the first (and easiest) 7 days of my chemo treatment.
Sickness. You can’t be prepared for the feeling of constant overwhelming nausea. I thought I was pretty well hardened to the effects of binge drinking. Countless episodes lying still on a cold bathroom floor on a Sunday morning. This does not compare. Mornings are most defiantly the worst. Because I now like to wake up at 5am (we’ll get on to that in later) I’m necking a sickness tablet at 6am and again at 12pm and 6pm. Once we get to 1pm it eases right off. Do I ever stop feeling sick? No. Can I deal with it? Absolutely. ‘How do you do it’ I hear you say… Eating a mini cheddar every hour is my life now. I can’t move about until I’ve had one. I open my eyes and shove a cheddar in my gob without moving my head. I can’t leave the house without them. I’m literally like a 2 year old carrying round half eaten bags of snacks in all of my pockets. But it works and anything to have an afternoon where I can turn my head without retching the lungs off myself.
Food is totally weird. For me, ‘loss of appetite’ is not something I’ve ever experienced. I can always eat something. Not anymore! I eat when I’m hungry and stop when I’m not. There is nothing that I ‘fancy’ so it’s small and whatever is there. How weird your body tells you when you should and shouldn’t eat. Watch, this will be the one side effect of chemo that doesn’t follow me to the other side of treatment free life. It’s always cold. I thought that Macmillan had lost their minds when they said make things to eat at room temperature. I eat everything at room temperature. It’s much nicer. It’s probably not. But it tastes that way to me.
Taste is another thing that has started to go west. My tongue can no longer be recognized as my tongue. It’s disgusting. It feels like a bit of old cracked leather that can’t be hydrated. No wander I can’t taste properly. I don’t like coffee. Coffee is my life. I mean I don’t need any help with staying out of bed right now, but life is not the same without a hot cuppa. I haven’t had any hot drinks. Warm is now weird for food and drink. My sister bought me a ‘chemo cookbook’. What a world we live in. Some absolute legend of a Doctor read through all the recipes of famous cooks and chefs and put their tasty and non-acidic food in one place. (I’ll add a pic. It’s strongly recommended). What everyone forgot to tell me, not advice, but a necessity, is the supplies needed of prune juice and kale. Like eat only these things. In extremely large quantities. And start from the day of chemo. It is a must. Everything grinds to a halt. On top of everything else that’s on the never-ending list of shit things that are happening (pun intended), no one wants a blockage too.
The immunity injections started on Sunday. On Sunday morning I could have cried anticipating the side effects of back, bone and muscle pain. Thankfully, I’ve got through unscathed from these little additions to my week. Put that in the perk pile!
I’m a solid 8 hours sleep a night, or I can’t function kind of girl. I can’t sleep. At all. I’m not even tired! I wake up ready to go full of energy at 5am sharp. Every day. I’m knocking doors out of windows before anyone else has thought about getting up. I’ll get through that pile of inspiring books that have been sat on the bookshelf for years. Except ‘the 5am club’ that can come off the list. I made it on my own Robin Sharma!
My nails started to snap off from Monday. I wasn’t expecting that to happen so soon and severely. They are now shorter than I thought I could ever get my nails. But they are safe when they are short. I have a constant feeling that my hair feels weird. The feeling of impending doom of that first clump of hair dropping has me on edge. My hair clippers got delivered today. I’m not taking any chances that it might need to come off sooner rather than later.
I’m ready to take on chemo cycle 1, week 2. Well, as ready as I feel I can be.
