Another weekend, yay. A couple more days free of treatment when I can get back to feeling more normal. Well a bit, anyway.
Today was a day of being mucked about really, clinic was running behind this morning (by about 45 mins too) and then radio was moved to this evening - the machine needed something doing to it, not sure what. At least there was no waiting tonight, which was better than hanging around for over an hour after the clinic to see if they could slot me in, as it were.
I'm now on the downward slope of the chemo, another 3 of those to go and (thankfully) they will be finished. Damned things, I know they are supposed to be doing me good in the long run but I hate the after effects. Semi-fasting seems to help the nausea, best effect seems to be to get lots of the fortified drinks in the day before and during the actual treatment, it doesn't seem to encourage the sickness and diarrhea as much as eating normally does. Just not eating doesn't really help, funnily enough, even though you _really_ don't feel like eating after the chemo it does help to keep putting small amounts fluids into my tube (actually drinking anything made me gag - yuck). Which is another problem, now that my taste buds are knackered (temporarily) I really can't stand the taste of water or indeed most drinks - I've tried lemonade (ice cold too) and blackcurrant, ginger beer, various juices to no avail. They all taste horrible and basically I'm not drinking much. I've taken to pumping water into the darned feeding tube (yes I remember swearing how much I didn't want it or think I would need it - I can see the irony here) to make sure I actually get enough water, stupid as that may be.
So far side effects are still quite minimal, my mouth is gradually getting a bit sore, but not much - mostly just one side of my tongue is a bit sensitive, no real burning on my skin yet from the radio - although I can see it getting red and see where the rays are effecting it when I put my moisturiser on my neck and shoulders, I think my hair is thinning a little (only a very little though) and my beard is pretty much not growing now, the shaver is only getting hair up on a few patches on my neck now and around my upper lip and chin. If this is permanent then it looks like I might still manage a rough sort of goatee and perhaps sideburns but thats about it. Time will tell.
