Yawn....

So, I know you must be getting bored of my posts about the joyous side effects of chemo, but unfortunately I don't have a lot else to share with you right now!  The post chemo week really, really sucks....I know that you are all aware of that but I just wanted to emphasise it, not looking for sympathy, just explaining why I have little of any meaningful interest to entertain you with right now!

I am now experienced in three cycles of FEC so feel I can relate my common experiences and I hope that anyone going through the same may find some support knowing they are not alone with their weird and wonderful side effects.  Hopefully some of my suggestions to keep the side effects at bay may help too.

So, this is my typical pattern:

Feel great for about four hours after chemo finished then nausea hits like a brick wall.  In cycle one and two this was followed quickly by severe vomiting for several hours.  This time I escaped this, I think taking a sedative and going to sleep before the nausea hit may have had some effect.  I also had accupuncture the day before, keeping an open mind about that still.  I also had the strong anti sickness, Emend a few hours before chemo, the last time they didn't give it to me long enough before, it should be taken an absolute miminum of one hour before.

Day 2 and 3 are pretty much exhaustion and intense nausea.  Eating little and often helps.  The anti sickness ondansetron causes constipation so you need to counter that with something, I ate lots of prunes first time round but since then I have powdered stuff...movicol I think it's called.  I take steroids as anti sickness for the first few days too...these along with the chemo itself cause sleep disruption so I only take them morning and afternoon.  They make you hungry and give you a 'moon' face as my Mum calls it!

By day 4 the mucotitis sets in......softening and peeling of the mucous membranes from mouth to anus!  So far my mouth has been much better this time thanks to constant use of difflam mouth wash. I have also been very lucky up until now not to have any bad mouth ulcers.  This cycle my oncologist recommended using the difflam even before symptoms start and I think this has helped keep it to a minimum so far.

Day 5 was yesterday, I started to get the eye and ear pain that ended me in A and E last time.  At least I know this time it's not a heart thing, just another stupid side effect.  Still my left eye and it kept me awake despite ibuprofen and paracetamol.  It may just be down to dry eyes which is another common side effect, I have viscotears which is a very thick eye drop, it does seem to ease the discomfort termporarily.  My oncologist has referred me for an eye clinic appointment to check for blocked ducts.  If you can't tell by now, I had a very thorough oncologist this time around and she liked
prescribing things for every ailment!  Yesterday I had to start my self injections to stimulate my bone
marrow since my blood count seems to fall to borderline each time.  The injection is not painful to do but it does cause bone pain as a result of the bone marrow being kicked up the butt.  I think I've been lucky so far not to experience it too badly (probably shouldn't speak too soon though!)

So today im off most of the medication, which is always a relief, but there can be side effects from withdrawal, particularly from the steroids.  I continue to take something called domperidone which I take before meals to help my incredibly slow digestion and prevent heart burn. The nausea still remains and I imagine will until at least Monday if it follows the same pattern as before.  Annoyingly the only thing that takes it away completely is eating, but if I eat too much it gets worse!  Distraction helps too, and sleeping!

So, now that I have off loaded I feel I can move on with my day, time to get dressed, do something very minor that feels like an accoumplishment (like wrap a Christmas present!) then have another rest!  That's how my day goes......roll on next week for a tiny wee bit more energy!