Treatment Days

Day 1:

June 18, 2024

I took the first chemo pill around 8 AM. With me being a morning person, that was probably way too late. Doug was in my bedroom with the two dogs. I was in my bathroom, cup of water ready at hand. I’ve kept the pill bottle in a special place and in its original box. Taking a deep breath, I opened the bottle, took out a pill, popped it in my mouth. And grabbed the water to swallow it down.

Then, I stood there, waiting. It seemed the whole world was holding its breath. Were the side effects going to burst out upon me, attacking at will? Would I feel anything? Notice anything? Nope, nothing. No weird feelings, no blasts of illness. No sirens and flashing lights. Okay, is that all there is? Leaving the bathroom, I decided to go about my day.

And that’s how it went, all day long. After an hour I ate breakfast, deciding to take the next pill a little earlier, gradually working it up until I was taking it closer to seven than to eight, because I’m always up with my dog by seven in the morning. I mean, I like breakfast and don’t want to eat it so late!

I felt fine all day, hyper aware of every single thing about my body, but all was well. The only thing was a little bit of diarrhea that night near bedtime. It was just one occurrence, nothing more. I slept like a baby that night, after not sleeping much at all the night before. Hey, maybe this won’t be so bad.

Day 2:

June 19, 2024

I moved the pill taking time up a little, as I’d planned the day before. Not by much. I understand about taking it at the same time every day. So, I took the pill and waited. I did not expect blasts, lights explosions of side effects or anything this time. But this time, I developed a headache. Not a bad headache, but a headache. Again, hyper aware of every single thing about my body. The headache wasn’t much. My watch has a heart rate app, so I checked it and my rate was pretty high. That worried me, so I laid down for a couple hours to rest, and everything calmed down. No other problems the rest of the day.

I’m being careful to eat small meals, drink plenty of water, moisturize hands and feet. I’m follow toilet flushing and disinfectant wipe protocol to the letter. Day 2, so far so good.

Day 3:

June 20, 2024

Took pill three a little earlier again this morning. Think I have it at a good time for every day. I’m going to set up a daily reminder on my Alexa device, so I never get distracted and forget to take this. A little dizziness and general weird feeling this morning, but it’s settling down.

I’m wondering if I’m just having a super easy time with these meds, or if they just aren’t doing anything at all, or probably more likely, if it will take a few days for the meds to really sink into my system, to accumulate in my blood and start attacking all those good and bad fast-growing cells. Will I then start having more side effects? They call these meds, chemo pills, so how can I have no side effects to speak of? It’s weird. I keep waiting for the axe to fall.

Approximately four hours later.

Well, now I’m having side effects! Why did I have to wonder why I wasn’t having them? Still not severe or debilitating, but … Well, nausea is the main thing today. Not vomiting, just feeling queasy. Not even enough to take anti-nausea medicine. Just enough to feel it and feel bad overall. My body feels like it wants to add to that problem in other but somewhat similar ways, but so far, not. Didn’t sleep much last night, and I’d love to go to bed, but I’m trying to stay up all day today. We’ll see. If this gets worse, I will go lie down, closer to the bathroom, and keeping my stomach quiet and resting.

Hours later again. Felt nauseated, or is it nauseous, most of the day. Have not thrown up or had any other unpleasant bodily uncomfortable actions. But I have felt like all that wanted to happen all day. Feeling tired, low and not very well right now. I’m going to eat some mashed potatoes, have more water, or maybe a glass of milk and then possibly go rest. If this is me on the third day, what will the fourth day bring?