Been away from the site for a few weeks. Sorry!
I sort of got really bored of cancer, sick of talking about it sick of it being my life so I switched off as much cancer ' noise' as I could and powered on through the chemo for a bit.. Gosh there is a lot of ads on the TV lately for McMillan and Cancer Research. You never really notice until you are affected I guess. I have to turn off when I see ' Brave the Shave' sigh!
Anyway yesterday I started on cycle 3 of 12 on Folfox. Starting to become fluent in cancer speak and getting to know the nurses. Its like going to a special members club. every 2 weeks :)
Right now I am still driving myself to my chemo appointments but finding it much more tiring than I imagined it would be. As I was going into this in relatively good health I mistakenly imagined I would be able to breeze this a bit more than I have.
After cycle one i was very very breathless and lethargic. My oncologist sent me for a scan and low and behold I had a blood clot in my pulmonary artery. Chemo was delayed for a week and now i get to inject myself daily with blood thinners ( Fragmin) and leave beautiful purple bruise abstract artwork all over my stomach!
Cycle 2 was all about the nausea - they reduced my anti sickness after the blood clot and lord did I struggle....dry heaving for days and every known nausea treatment to man and beast was tried. I ended up calling the hospital chemo hotline and they gave me different meds that did help although i had 3 days of hell. I lost a stone in a week which wasnt good.
Cycle 3 - so far so good.....nausea is much better but side effects are marginally worse - the cold sensitivity in hands, feet and throat is horrid as is some of the visual disturbances. Thankfully hair has stayed put so far and apart from the nausea it has been manageable. I am on stronger anti sickness this time so I am hopeful for a better week.
They have told me that next blood test will include tumour markers and I am absolutely dreading that. I both really want to know and really dont want to know at the same time. I get a horrid sick feeling in the pit of my stomach when I think about what the result might be. Trying to put it to the back of my mind as there is not much I can do about it at the moment.
Now that I am back being positive I am trying to do what i can outside of chemo and cancer to keep me sane so I have gone back to my hobby of silversmithing and jewellery making with a view of selling a few pieces when I am able.
Onwards and upwards as they say
Roz
