fourth chemo (out of four)

Sounds great but today, day 3, I feel rotten. So I don’t feel done with anything yet. Although the chemo nurses blew soap bubbles at me when I was ready to go on Tuesday:

Tuesday evening I felt like I had been hit all over with a sandbag (pressure evenly distributed). Yesterday my mind was sharp but I was very tired (not sleepy, body tired) and spent the day in bed as much as possible. Today my mind is fuzzier and I am still tired. Queasiness held off a bit until today, which was nice. It’s not too bad, and my flu-head (chemo headache from the Cytoxan) is worse than last time but no worse than the first two times.

These chemo symptoms for me seem like different rolls of the same few dice…different levels and onsets of the same set of side effects each time. This time around, staying in the bed (yesterday) and on the bed (today–a slight improvement–no covers necessary) seems like the right thing to do. Also, I’m trying to drink enough water and nettle tea (I didn’t manage last round, and I got a bad headache on days 5-7, plus my liver enzymes were elevated more on Tuesday when they checked) and take all my other supplements and things.

I got a book called SHOW ME that is all about breast surgery for breast cancer–lumpectomies, mastectomies, reconstructions of many different sorts, and no reconstruction. It’s mostly pictures and stories contributed by patients. Very useful! I’m putting it in the links on the right.