DID I SPEAK TOO SOON?

Treatment day 9:

August 15, 2024

Remember my last post when I said I wasn’t having many side effects? Yeah, well, that seems to have changed a little bit. No hand and foot syndrome, thank God. But my tongue has a mild version of feeling like I ate or drank something too hot and burned it, and my lips are dry and cracked all the time, even with chap stick or Vaseline on them. I’ve had bouts of nausea several times, still no vomiting but nausea. I had one day with some diarrhea, but that seems to have gone away. Yesterday I was out with my sister most of the day. We went to a family function, with an hour and a half drive to and from the event. I felt sick in the car both ways, and I’ve never been car sick in my life! We actually stopped on the way home to get water, so I could take one of my nausea pills. So, my friend the side effects are back!

The fatigue hasn’t really come back, but I’ve had the opposite problem. I am not sleeping well. I’ve been falling asleep and then waking up anywhere from midnight to 4 AM and staying awake until it’s time to get up. I’ve also had times where I can’t fall asleep for hours, but mostly it’s the other way. Last night I was exhausted after my long day. I went to bed around 9:30 in the evening, slept deeply and well until about 1 AM, and I’ve been awake ever since. This has got to stop. I’m frustrated.

My appetite is still relatively okay. Not perfect. I was just getting it back when the new meds arrived, so now it’s sometimes not there and sometimes is. When I do eat, it’s not a lot at a time, but it’s at least getting something down me. A smoothie, a casserole of some sort without tomatoes or anything spicy or acidy. One night I had mac and cheese, and another night pre-made mashed potatoes from the grocery store. I even got sweet and sour chicken the other day and found it delicious, having left overs of that today. And I ate Salmon at the family thing yesterday. I’m working on that nutrition thing!

I went to my uncle’s funeral and celebration of life yesterday and had a marvelous time. I can hardly talk today, but the event was a blast. The service was beautiful, the most beautiful funeral service I’ve ever attended. We went to another venue for the life celebration, where I saw many family members, I hadn’t seen in far too many years. The food was incredibly good, and I’ve always disliked Salmon. But if I could make salmon that tasted like that, absolutely not fishy, I’d eat salmon several times a week! After dinner they passed around microphones so people could tell stories about my uncle. They were moving, funny, and reaffirmed all that we knew him to be.

But I nearly reached my brick wall. It was hot yesterday; I wasn’t feeling well; I’d been up and bubbly and cheerful, sitting on uncomfortable chairs that were too high for my feet to touch the ground. I just reached the moment when Rosie knew by looking at me that it was time to leave. But we’d been there about three hours, so we said farewell to those we could find and headed for home, almost two hours away. I’m very happy I went, and I truly hope to continue to rebuild relationships with the people I saw at the event.

I planned the day out well though, cancer and treatment wise. I brought my biggest purse. Inside, with my phone, disabled parking pass and other purse type stuff, I had one zip lock bag with my dog Shani’s food and a collapsible bowl for her dinner and water. I had a tiny purse in the big one too, with all my necessities. I packed a number of disinfectant wipes in a sealed double bag. I brought my nausea pills and the diarrhea medicine, all of this just in case. Life is complicated these days, and these are things I have to consider before going out.