It's been two weeks since my first round of chemo. For the following 4 days I basically slept like a cat, probably 14+ hours a day. I also felt so mentally exhausted that even watching tv felt like it required more energy to focus than I had available. Thankfully I never felt much nausea, I was pretty proactive with taking meds at the first sign of anything. Heartburn was definitely an issue, though.
I started feeling a bit more alert starting on day 5, though then things switched and I started having trouble sleeping. My nose and mouth started feeling really dry. Unfortunately the dry mouth then turned into sores that made it difficult to eat anything other than very soft, bland foods for about a week but that's finally been getting better and I have a better idea of what to do to help prevent it being as bad next time (hopefully). I haven't experienced the metallic taste people talk about, but food as tasted weird/different at times and generally somewhat more bland, like if I use sound as an analogy for flavor it's like the volume has been turned down.
Energy has been a lot better this second week, it still comes and goes but most days I've felt good energy-wise. Interestingly, the chemo does seem to have possibly put my autoimmune disease into remission at least temporarily, as my joints have all felt completely fine this whole time. So that's a silver lining.
Most people start losing their hair at about the 2 week mark after starting this chemo regimen. At first I figured I would wait till I saw signs of hair shedding before buzzing my hair, but then I realized that the waiting and anticipating was making me feel anxious so opted for a proactive approach instead and buzzed it last night. I'll admit that it's pretty darn nice having hair be this low maintenance. I haven't noticed shedding from my head yet, although I have noticed that my underarm hair hasn't grown since shaving it several days ago, and also my leg hair is definitely thinner and patchier.
Emotionally, I've been managing pretty well most days. I'm good at putting one literal and figurative foot in front of the other and just getting through the next hard thing. I did have an opportunity this weekend to spend some time in the woods with close friends and it allowed for some space to let out a lot of the grief I feel about this diagnosis and the way it's taking over my life and all the temporary and permanent changes, discomfort, and uncertainty ahead of me. It felt soothing and cathartic. This is hard and it sucks, but I'm grateful for the resources I have available to me for dealing with everything, including all the great people who love and support me and say the right things when I need to hear them.
No comments:
Post a Comment