I am feeling very grateful this week to be among the millions of people to have received the COVID vaccine! There have to be some perks to having cancer and going through chemotherapy. I got the call last week once my GP had updated my records and added me to the 'extremely vulnerable' list and off I went to their clinic on Monday. It was very well run, I walked in one door and almost without stopping was giving the vaccination and was on my way home. Excellent stuff.
So far no real side effects from that, other than a stiff arm. However, I am already so knackered this week (I had all the chemo drugs last week, it was a 'Big Chemo' week) and so I am not sure I would notice if I felt any worse!?
The other fun development this week has been the beginning of menopausal symptoms. I am 36 so typically very young to start going through menopause but right at the beginning of my diagnosis I was warned that I may experience symptoms and may go through the whole thing. The lovely cancer nurse asked carefully the day I was diagnosed if S and I wanted to considered freezing my eggs for any future children....no 2 is more than enough for us thank you! We are lucky that we had already decided we had completed our family so that was one less thing to worry about!
So here I am half way through chemo and my body decides to through some more fun at me, some symptoms I didn't even know were associated with menopause, including anxiety. I was getting overly worked up about where I was on the vaccination list, which in the scheme of things wasn't important. I knew I was going to get it in the next couple of weeks but I was fixating on it and anxiety and emotions were just running high. Then the wonderful hot flushes started to appear. Oh they are a treat! One minute I am freezing (as you would be when there is snow outside) and the next I am needing to strip down to my vest top and put on a fan.
This is obviously lots of fun for those whom have zoom meetings with me and see me doing costume changes every 15 minutes! They are at least manageable during the day but at night it is somewhat disruptive. S has fitted me a lovely fan on my bedside table to help me cope which has been amazing but still waking all hot and bothered every so often and not getting back to sleep! So any tips from anyone as to how to manage them so it is easier to sleep please to let me know!
Keep on fighting everyone, if you get offered the vaccine, take it, hope you are all well. xx
