24 December 2011

Deep in the Chemo Dumps

I was ecstatic about the timing of my chemo around Thanksgiving, and it is also acceptable to me that I am in bed this weekend.  There's no good time to feel like shit, but this weekend really isn't so bad.    I was able to do the first few nights of Chanukah, but now I can take a back seat to the fat man and bundle off the kids to their relatives who celebrate Christmas.  Dan was around yesterday and today to help me get situated, and he'll be around the next couple of days to pull me out.  So all in all, it's not bad, although the latkes on Wednesday night tasted funny.  I'll have to make up for that next year.

I am having muscle and bone soreness from my Nulasta shot, which is being nicely managed by the ibuprofen.  My mouth is not too bad this round.  It is gummy, but not full of sores... yet.  My skin feels funny, tight and dry, which is both a function of the current climate and my difficulty drinking as much as I should.  I'm using lotion almost hourly on my hands as I've developed skin splits on my thumbs.  No doing dishes for me.

The new symptom on the block is that my body can't seem to regulate temperature.  I freeze and burn up.. at the same time.  My feet are like ice cubes, my torso is hot, my head sweats if I'm wearing a hat and freezes if I don't.  My arms and hands are chilled, my legs are too warm.  Every once in a while I go into full on hot flash and need to kick off the covers and get naked.

Dr. Kimo and I discussed the steroids during my last treatment and he suggested holding a couple back and taking them tomorrow so I have the energy to get out of bed.  I'd like to make it over to Dan's sister's house for xmas din-din.  We'll see if that happens.

My taste is shot - even the coconut water is yucky.  I'm drinking Pellegrino, (which has enough bite to mask the metallic taste of water,) and mango.  My protein drinks are tasting yucky so I'm eating eggs (fried over easy,) and cups of milk/soy chai.  I had cream of wheat this morning and it was lovely.  But it seems to be changing hourly and I am also having some nausea this time, which I haven't had before.

Dan is in the dumps with me, (Christmas does it for him,) and so we shall muddle through together and look forward to me feeling vastly better in a month.