26 January 2012

Nuts and Bolts


I've had some questions and I think maybe I haven't been keeping people informed how I'm doing as well as I had been during my more intensive treatment.

I finished chemo just over five weeks ago.  I no longer feel sick from it.  My taste has returned, although some foods I no longer find palatable.  The muscle spasms have subsided, with only an occasional eye twitch.  My left eye still routinely runs.  It is worse when I am out in the cold.  My digestive system has settled down.  I don't pee like an old man anymore.  I still have some remnants of my hair, it's all white. I read somewhere that grey hair is more coarse than colored hair, and thus the roots are stronger.  I lost almost all my grey, but lost all of my brown.  The stubble of my still-active follicles looks like a halo around my head when it catches the light.  My hair has not started to grow back.  My lashes and eyebrows thinned out but I did not lose them all.  My nails were unaffected.  My skin is still very dry, but it's the middle of winter and I am usually parched this time of year.

My period has been MIA since I started chemo in October.  The reproductive tract, (along with the digestive tract, hair, skin and nails,) are fast splitting cells.  They are targeted by the type of chemo I had.  Not sure if my period will return or not.  If not, then I will be switched from the tamoxifen to an aromatase inhibitor in about a year.  

The joint aches from the neulasta have stopped.  I still have muscle tiredness and achiness.

I've been off my Zoloft about eight weeks.  I can feel the difference and if I could, I would re-start it.  At this point my depression is tolerable and I am not prepared to try another drug.  I haven't taken and pain killers, tranquilizers or sleeping pills for over a month.  I don't have as many headaches. 

I've been on the Tamoxifen for about three weeks.  The hot flashes that started while I was on chemo continue.  They are not as severe as I have read about 'real' menopausal hot flashes.  I flush, my head sweats, I take off my hat and sweater and I cool down in about five minutes.  They wake me up at night and sometimes I can't get back to sleep.  I unnerve people when I take off my hat in public.

The diminished range of motion from my surgery continues.  I am having some trouble regaining mobility in the arm where they took the lymph nodes.  The diminished fitness from six weeks of being a potato in bed post-surgery, and then the additional time I spent in bed while going through chemo is profound.  I may not pee like an old man anymore, but I pee like an old woman now... don't make me laugh.  I need to build my core strength back, inside and out.

I will be doing my final surgery (to finish my reconstruction,) some time in March.  It should be a piece of cake, relatively speaking.