I wonder why you can always read a doctor's bill and you can never read his prescription. ~Finley Peter Dunne
I just wanted to throw that in for a bit of humour this morning :)
Well the first two days post chemo were relatively good, in comparison with days 3,4 and 5 they were truly a cake walk. The night of day three (or two days post chemo) the chemo really did a number on my stomach. I had the worst heartburn I have EVER experienced and I hope its the worst I will ever experience it was agonizing. I ended up in hospital that night and they tried prescription acid reduction drugs, gastrogel, and normal chewable antacids. Nothing worked so they hooked me up to an IV and gave me oral anaethstetic which made me very nauseous so I ended up with a few different IV anti-nausients. From what the doctor says chemotherapy targets all fast growing cells, not specifically cancer so stomach cells can be adversely affected. I am not on a prescription to stop the production of strong stomach acid twice a day to limit the pain. A few days later and if I don't eat small meals every few hours I get the acid pains but it is getting easier to manage.
The doctor at ER also did some blood tests and I had elevated white blood cell counts so he told me to start my routine anti-biotics (normally start on day 5) a day early because he felt I had an infection brewing. I told him I could feel my throat getting sore and since it was red he just confirmed I needed to start the anti-biotics. Even today my throat is getting worse but I have been on anti-biotics for 48 hours so I will call the oncologist and make sure all is still ok. I don't want the infection to get out of control while I am immunosuppressed, the less complication the better.
On day four I never got out of bed, except to pee and shower. I was so tired and my stomach still hurt so bad and the nausea was an issue. It was a complete right off. Day 3/4 is also when the bone, muscle and joint pain really started to take off. I think that's one of the things I find really hard to deal with as well is the constant pain, everything hurts, even the joints in my fingers. I take panadiene forte (Tylenol 3's) every 6 hours and it doesn't even dent the pain......I don't want to find out what it feels like with no pain relief that's for sure.
All in all chemo is better than I expected. I thought it would be much worse, or at least worse for longer periods of time. It was only about 36 hours where I really struggled and didn't think I could do it anymore. The last couple days have been tough but do-able. I am dreading the next cycle only because I don't want to have to go through it all again and I am scared of the stomach pain again. I know I will get through it but I can't say I am looking forward to it. I hope the side effects are not too much worse next time around. They say they increase with each cycle but I am praying I am an exception to the rule. Today insomnia has set in, ever since yesterday afternoon I have the inability to sleep even though I am so tired, I think I got about 3 hours of sleep last night. Hopefully I can nap today! I think I might even go for a walk and take the kids to the park, and get some fresh air and watch my gorgeous boys have some fun!
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