Chemotherapy's Weirder Side Effects ( 19 )

Chemo comes with its share of common side effects such as nausea, vomiting, hair loss, loss of appetite, mouth sores, fatigue, etc.  Yet, there are also side effects you would never have thought of.

Eye tearing. Read it's a side effect from Taxotere. It's been almost 3 weeks since my last and final chemo treatment and the waterworks are driving me crazy.  In addition, I wake up each morning with a gritty goop in the inside corners of my eyes. A washcloth dipped in warm water cleans things up very well. I started using Visine multi symptom and it seems to help quite a bit.

            To keep my eyes company, my nose runs constantly. Also a side effect from Taxotere.

The cough. It started with my 3rd chemo treatment and is still around.  It's a dry, non-productive annoyance.  Chest and lungs are clear, but the tickle has stayed.

                                                    Fingernails and

toenails are funky looking.  Thin bands on the surface of my fingernails. My toenails ... my big toes just look gross! None lifting or falling off thankfully. You guessed it. Taxotere.

Vision changes.  Sometimes things get blurry.  I wear glasses, so I'm always adjusting them.

My sense of smell has fully come back ... but taste? Well, some things still taste yucky.  I'm either adding sugar or salt.  I was told taste takes quite awhile to return to normal.  

I didn't lose a lot of weight, nor did I gain.  I pretty much stayed the same. I have to say though, sometimes my legs feel like they are made of ... lead. 

Though not a weird side effect, my eyebrows and eyelashes have thinned considerably. A little mascara easily thickens the eyelashes. The weird part though ... concerns my eyebrows.  I've been been filling them in and they look better now then before!

Chemo ... farts ... are deadly.  That's all I'm gonna say.

Gotta say, 17 days since my final chemo and I feel really good!

Had My 4th And Last Chemo Treatment Today ( 18 )

I had my 4th and last Chemo treatment today. Four treatments might not seem like many, but Chemo is extremely tough on the body, mind, and spirit. I can't imagine how some people can endure a year's worth of Chemo. I am so glad it's over. 

At the Cancer Center where I received my treatments, there is a brass bell in the main hallway with a small plaque behind it. Every patient is encouraged to ring the bell 3 times when their Chemo treatments are over signaling the end of that part of their journey. Check out the photo below.

I was never so happy to ring a bell in my entire life! My Chemo has ended, but my journey is not yet over.  In January I will begin 6 weeks of radiation therapy for 5 days a week.  From what I've been told, radiation therapy is a piece of cake by comparison to Chemo. And I am absolutely ready to continue down the road ....

I hope you will join me as I continue the next part of my journey.

My 3rd Chemo And The Tough Road After ( 17 )

I had my 3rd Chemo infusion on November 17th. Five days later I was admitted to the hospital because my white blood cell count had dropped dramatically. Neutropenia. I also had a low grade fever and a dry cough. The cough was the oddest thing. Very dry, almost like I had particles of dust coating my throat. BUT my lungs and chest were absolutely clear. No mucus. I didn't cough all the time. It was sporadic. Annoying as hell. Needless to say, I felt wiped out. I was pumped full of antibiotics, fluids, and shots to make sure no blood clots formed in my legs. I did feel much better in a very short time.

I couldn't wait to go home. If you have spent time in a hospital, you know why. You can't sleep. You are woken up at all hours for a pill, a shot, checking vitals, and doctor visits. I was released 2 1/2 days later. I had more antibiotics to take for 10 days and 2 different kinds of cough medicine. I really only needed cough medicine occasionally at night. The cough faded away a few days after I'd been home. I have my own theories about the ... cough. I call it "Chemo cough". After I'd been home for awhile, I did some online research. Not surprisingly, I am not the only one who had a very similar experience. Doctors don't want to hear or talk about "Chemo cough".  Oh, well. 

My 4th and final Chemo treatment is Thursday December 8.  Yay! I have been staying home more and avoiding crowds. If I do go out, I wear a surgical mask EVERYWHERE and I don't touch anything if I go into a store. Hubby goes with me all the time and does the touching. I have hand sanitizer bottles all over the house, in my purse, and in the car. I wash my hands often as well. I also wear my mask in the house if I'm petting our cat.

 The only bump in the road at the moment is my stepson has a bad cold. He WEARS a mask when he's around me. He's an adult and goes to work everyday, so we are not together all day. When he goes off to work, I use Clorox wipes and clean the TV remotes, doorknobs, refrigerator door handles, light switches, and the computer mouse and keyboard. Then I spray some Lysol into the air near the living room couch and other places in the house.

 When my stepson first came down with his cold I was almost tempted to spray him with Lysol ...but his cold got better rather quickly. Good thing for him. Hee Hee Hee ....

I'll let you know how things go after my last Chemo treatment in a week or so ....

Chemo Brain .... Not Such Fun Facts ( 16 )

              When do we have to be there? Where are we going? Why?
 CHEMO BRAIN. This is what your brain can be like when you are going through chemo treatment. Foggy, dull, fuzzy, unfocused, short attention span.  Those are just a few ways to describe what is going on in your head. 

It's not really a case of No Signal Found ...  it's more of a Loose Connection. What's going  on? What just happened here?  Did I miss something?  Simply put ... IT'S CONFUSION AND LACK OF CONCENTRATION.  And it will hit you in the strangest ways.

Just to give you an example, If you eat eggs, you probably know these are fried eggs ... over easy.  I recently went to a diner for breakfast with my hubby and couldn't for the life of me remember the term ... over easy. I was grasping for words when I spoke to the waitress. I told her, "You know, when the yolks of the eggs have a thin white cover over them." She finally figured out what I meant.  It can be so damn frustrating ....

Paying bills? Get help. When your head is swimming in Chemo Brain (my brain fog starts to set in around the 3rd day after my chemo treatment and lasts til about the 10th day) let someone else pay the bills if you can. I'm the one who usually takes care of the bills (making payments both by check and online) but when my brain is temporarily out of commission, hubby takes over. Yet, there are alternative ways to deal with this. If you can swing it, pay your bills before a chemo treatment or when the fog has completely lifted. If you can't, try to enlist a good friend or relative you trust to help you manage paying your bills.

Well, that's the scoop on CHEMO BRAIN.  My 3rd Chemo treatment is tomorrow, November 17th.  I'll let you know how things went in a week or so. 

Everything Tastes Yucky When You're Going Through Chemo! ( 15 )

Bleh! That's usually how everything tastes when you're going through Chemo. It's been 14 days since my second Chemo. I really didn't have any kind of an appetite following my first Chemo, but when I had started to feel better, at least I had no trouble eating. 

This second time around, food tasted ... awful. When I started to feel hungry around Day 5, I found that when I'd taken only one bite of something, I often would have to scrape the dish and toss the food out. Everything was trial and error. I found that things that were "sweet" were easier to eat. 

Things that seem to work:
Pancakes and syrup
muffins - really like the crumb cake topped muffin from Dunkin D. 
canned fruit - especially peaches
applesauce
hard candies
Raisin bread with jelly

Meats vary:
grilled chicken tolerable
chicken noodle soup with crackers or bread OK
SALT also became my new best friend. I am not normally a salt lover, but some foods tasted better with a good dose of salt added.

NO WAY FOODS:
beef
eggs (except hard boiled)
anything fried 

Oh, did I mention mouth sores? They really make eating very difficult. They started on Day 4 after my second Chemo. Had lovely white dots on the side of my tongue.  Salt water & baking soda rinses 4-5 times a day really helped.  The pain from the sores started to lesson by the 12th day.

Now I am 2 weeks past my 2nd Chemo and my appetite is pretty good and I am eating pretty well.  Plain water still has an after taste, but a squirt or two of MIO really helps.

Had My Second Chemo Treatment ( 14 )

Had my 2nd Chemo treatment today. I started my day with 2 steroid tabs with breakfast in the morning before leaving for my infusion scheduled for 11:00 a.m. Once I arrived at the Cancer Center and got settled, there was just one little bump in the road when the chemo nurse was setting up the IV. She had a hard time finding a vein in my hand that would feed well. Frustrated, she asked for the assistance of another chemo nurse, and the other nurse got it right away. Things went smoothly after that. I was was first given nausea meds through my IV. Then I was given a pepsid tab and a benadryl tab chaser. Moving right along, The chemo nurse then gave me my drug #1 - Cytoxan. No problems there. When the drip finished about an hour later, I was given drug #2 Taxotere.

 Taxotere is the nasty drug. It can have very unpleasant side effects at the get-go for some patients. Luckily, I had no initial problems with it ... both the first time and during my second Chemo. For me though, it makes me absolutely exhausted hours later.  

Around noon, I drank some water and had a half of PB and J sandwich I had taken to the center with me. Also had some cheese & crackers courtesy of the center.  A short while later, the chemo nurse came and talked with me about any symptoms I had experienced after my first chemo treatment. She logged everything into the computer. She also looked at my fingernails and said they looked fine. Fingernails can sometimes turn very dark and even lift off.  The very though made me cringe. My wonderful hubby was with me the whole time. He is my rock.
For about 3 hours we watched TV together ... I would occasionally nod off. That benadryl can make a person a bit loopy. 

Also had another visit from the Clown Lady. Today she was decked out in Halloween attire. Black hat, wig, dress. She told us another joke. 
"What happens when a ghost gets too close to a fire? You get a toasty ghostie!" Cute.

Also got to speak to my oncologist.  I showed her the stubble on my head and we talked about after care. She said I would be going every 6 months for a mammogram for at least the first year, maybe two. My prognosis is very very good. 

Tomorrow I will take my last 4 steroid pills for this treatment session, and I also have an appointment tomorrow morning for my Neulasta shot.  I expect I will probably have the same after effects I had after my first Chemo treatment. By the third day I will start to take a nose dive and feel really lousy for a total of about 5 days. No appetite, exhausted, sleeping a lot, Bouts of diarrhea. Then by the the 6th day I will start to perk up and feel even better every day thereafter. By day 10 I expect I'll be rockin'! And I will want to eat everything in sight.

I can do this! 2 down and 2 to go!  Then Chemo will be DONE.  Yay!

Chemo Treatment #2 Coming Up & Dealing With My Almost Bald Head ( 13 )

Well, My second Chemo treatment is tomorrow. I'm feeling a bit anxious, but not like the first time. At least I have a better understanding of what happens now. 

As you can see, I've lost most of my hair. My chemo nurse at my last visit told me I would lose most of it by my 2nd visit. Those ladies know their stuff! It was easier for me having to deal with losing my hair because my husband has buzzed it twice so far. Once right before my first Chemo treatment and, again,  about 10 days later.

  It's still coming out. I find it on my head turbans and scarves all the time.

Being almost bald is not a "look" I would want permanently, but there are a lot of interesting results. I actually like to rub the top of my head against the grain of the hair stubble. It feels really weird.  In a good sort of way.

Another odd thing is the cool breeze factor. Whenever I walk down the short narrow hall from my bedroom to the kitchen/living room without a head cover or scarf, I feel this soft rush of cool air flow across my naked head. Feels sort of like gentle blast of air conditioning hitting me right in the noggin.

They probably would deny it, but ...  Bald men must have cold heads. At least in the late fall and winter. Since I've lost most of my hair, my head is cold. A lot. Recently, I bought some 100% cotton turbans.

 They are pull-on, very soft, and great for sleeping in. They  are also great for wearing around the house and also fit well under most winter hats.  And they make great perches for parakeets.

Well, tomorrow my 2nd Chemo Treatment is another big step in My Journey With Breast Cancer. I'm hoping it might be a little easier, but I'm prepared for whatever happens. 

Tonight, we had Chinese take-out for dinner. This was the fortune I took out of my fortune cookie. Very "apropos" don't you think?