This time I was absolutely wiped out from Wednesday afternoon to Saturday afternoon. I lay around in bed, reading, napping, nibbling on things to keep the queasiness from flaring up. I couldn’t do much else. Eric kept sending me back to bed, I think, or maybe that was me sending me back there (for once). I ate regular meals, I slept regular hours, I waited it out. I wasn’t miserable, I was just bone-deep exhausted. Kind of a new feeling for me–so tired even I couldn’t convince myself to be useful.

Saturday I spent most of the day sitting on our little porch deck in the sun (or lying on the deck in the sun). Saturday afternoon I realized that I actually had a bit of energy. And I didn’t feel quite so queasy–maybe 80% of before. That was very, very nice. Saturday evening I had more energy–I stayed up and doing things until 10.

I started sleeping with a little knit hat on because otherwise I got cold and woke up over and over. My friend Erika made me the hat.

Sunday I had enough energy to go to Quaker meeting and business meeting afterwards (at which I take the minutes). Then I even went for a bit of a walk. It all felt good. From then until now I’ve been slowly gaining more stamina and energy, though I am still not up to Week 3 levels (we’re in Week 2!). I didn’t develop any of the digestive pains I had from the first round of chemo (gas, heartburn), probably because of the various changes in drugs and other stuff that I worked on between the two rounds. I started taking probiotic supplements on Saturday this time, to recolonize my guts with good bacteria, and I got a different anti-emetic with the chemo and a new one to take the 3 days afterward.

I took Marinol Tuesday through Thursday this time, but it didn’t do anything for the queasiness. However, I think it kept me just loopy enough to relax into being exhausted and not worry myself into a swivet over being so unproductive and lame. So…knowing me…I think that was probably pretty important. By Friday I wanted to see how much of how out of it I felt was due to chemo and how much to Marinol, so I stopped taking it. I got a little less foggy, which was good.

Overall, here’s what happened, then: 5 days of extreme tiredness and constant quease, but no pain, and then up and out into the real sunny world again, slowly. Much better than round 1. Thankfulness was there throughout.