22 November 2011

Who knew?

You all know about losing hair, and nausea, and fatigue, but there is much, much more to chemo than those.  Today I continue my series of symptoms/side effects of chemotherapy.  Yesterday I covered the fatigue.  Today I move on to weirder physical manifestations of poisoning my body.  (Emphasis on MY since everyone who does chemo has a different reaction to it, as well as to the corollary drugs with which they augment the regime.)    

Head zits:

This may be a function of wearing hats, having no hair to disperse scalp oils, my compromised immunity or my hair follicles freaking out.  (I'm assuming its the hair follicles freaking out since the rest of my skin is pretty clear.) I don't know why, but I have a bumper crop of the huge, ugly, angry zits on my head.  And they are so huge, ugly and angry that they HURT. 

Prostrate Trouble:

I pee like an 80 year old man.  Dribble, dribble, dribble.

It doesn't taste like chicken:

All meat tastes bitter and metallic.  All bland stuff tastes bitter.  All cold stuff tastes metallic.  All sweet stuff tastes awesome!

Muscle spasms:

For whatever reason, I get muscle spasms.  Most often in the most compromised muscles in my body - my pecs, which are currently under a lot of stress.  In addition to the tightness of the expansion process, my pecs have a tendency to spasm, making my chest painfully tight.  (I am thankful I am near the end of that process, having almost reached my desired size.)  I have also had charlie horses in my legs, feet, arms, back, front and neck.  And the occasional eye twitch, just for good measure.

Mood swings:

I think I covered the irritability and moodiness in some past posts.  In case you didn't catch it, I basically go insane for a week or so.

What's that smell?: 

For several days after I have chemo I can smell it coming out of me.  Most troublesome is that my sweat makes me queasy.

Digestive disruptions:

Some people get constipated with chemo, others get diarrhea.  Lucky me!  I get BOTH - wildly swinging from one extreme to the other, in spite of what I eat or don't eat, or take or don't take for it.

Insomnia:

The week of chemo, I just don't sleep.  A combination of very strong steroids and my reaction to benedryl (it wires me,) make it impossible to sleep... for a WEEK!  Tranquilizers and sleeping pills get me 2 - 4 hours of sleep in a night.  

Muscle and joint aches:

My muscles hurt, and not the 'good' kind of sore you get from the gym.  More like the 'bad' kind of hurt you get from the flu.  Ditto on my joints.

Cankers plus:

My mouth sucks. I've always had bad teeth - soft, prone to cavities and cracks, a mouth full of dental work, scar tissue on the inside of my lips and cheeks from braces and years of subsequent nervous cheek chewing.  Within two days of chemo I start getting cankers. The whole inside of my mouth, tongue included, turns white and starts to peel.  I have an additional medication to combat this - swishing and swallowing 3 - 4 times a day. It tastes gross and it has Oxycodone, Nystatin, Tetracycline and Benedryl, the bane of my existence. A pain killer, anti-fungal, anti-biotic and anti-histamine. (They've always got to throw in the anti-histamine to cover their butts in case of an allergic reaction.) It makes my mouth stop hurting, although it still peels. 

Intellectual Sloth:

This could be from lack of sleep, or corollary medication, but for whatever reason, I can't form sentences to communicate my thoughts, desires or ideas effectively.  I also can't type.  Likewise, I have an inability to distinguish differences in order to make decisions.  

I am thankful I am NOT nauseous... although they apparently have some excellent drugs to combat that, whereas they have little to combat the rest of this.