First Round Synopsis

On the instruction of my oncology nurse, I started keeping a daily journal of side-effects that followed the chemo infusions. I opted not to do that here because I wanted to be as matter-of-fact as I could and felt that was, at least potentially, too much information for this weblog journal. Since I already outlined my very bad week in a previous post, I see no harm in providing an brief overall synopsis of my first round of chemo here.

Days 1-2: 

I didn't really notice much change in the way I was feeling on the day of my first infusion, nor on the day after.

Days 3-7: 

This was a very bad five days. In addition to things that I expected (fatigue, body discomfort, weakness) I also suffered from various combinations of the maladies that I outlined in a previous post titled 'One Very Bad Week'. It was a terrible time, and one that felt like it would go on forever. It didn't, though...

Days 8-13:

I won't say I was "back to normal" during these days, by any means. I still suffered from many of the same side-effects, only to a slightly lesser degree. A few things, though, seemed to get worse during this period.

• Peripheral neuropathy (tingling in fingers, hands, and wrists)
  
• Peptic ulcer pain and discomfort (from stress)
  
• Headaches
• Head throbbing, heart pounding, and a strong feeling of "inner pressure"
• Hot flashes

Day 14:

This might have been a decent day, but I (unknowingly) messed it up. My oncologist had prescribed a 7-day course of a medicine that was supposed to help with my peripheral neuropathy, and I took the first of those pills the night before. When I woke up and started my daily routine in the bathroom, I felt incredibly dizzy and light-headed. It got so extreme that I had trouble making it down the stairs, even with a cane in one hand and the stair railing in the other. I spent most of the rest of the day on the couch, only getting up (quite unstably) to use the bathroom. The feeling dissipated as the day went on, but it also made me decide that I'd rather deal with the neuropathy than the dizziness. I never took another one of those pills.

Days 15-21:

Much more normal days. I still don't have much energy to go anywhere or do much of anything but now I can make the bed, help put dishes away, spend some time out in the garden, even take a drive now and then when the weather permitted. I had a strange thing happen on Day 18, though. In the evening, nothing I ate or drank tasted right. I could still taste, but nothing I ate appealed to me at all. Even my go-to daily green tea, which I've been drinking for years, tasted bad. I worried that this might be more of a shift than a glitch but, so far, it seems to be a glitch. My taste was just fine in the days that followed.

 

I've talked to both my oncologist and a palliative care nurse about the severity (and sheer number) of side-effects in those first two weeks after the infusion, so we'll see what we can do.