Okay – so a week ago I was all happy-happy and not complaining. Today I have lurking anxieties that I’m going to share so you don’t continue thinking I’m super human or anything. (You DID think I was, didn’t you?)
I’d read about the possible loss of fingernails and toenails during chemo, but until the “Look Good, Feel Good” gathering the other night, I didn’t know it was pretty much exclusive to one of my particular chemo drugs, Taxotere. Ever since (psychosomatic?), the tips of my fingers and toes occasionally tingle or feel tender, like my scalp before my hair took leave. My fingers are sensitive when I type, which for me is very bothersome. As advised, I cut my nails short and apply olive oil to the cuticles after each hand-washing. If the nails come off, they may or MAY NOT grow back!! If they grow back, they will be nasty looking and ridged for a long, long time. That’s fine . . . I’ll take nasty and ridged!
Another annoying thing the past week is that a blood vessel on the back of my right hand has become chemically “burned up” from chemo. The burn starts at the point of my IV insertion over two weeks ago and travels the pattern of the vein up my arm 2-3 inches. At first it was a thin reddish line, but over the past week has become an angry, dark red, thick line – that today has finally broken through the skin. I watch it for infection and keep it moisturized.
It now seems each round of chemo is going to come with an unpredictable aftermath. This time, though I am sleeping much better, I have less energy. Sometimes when I walk up the stairs I feel I’ve climbed Mt. Everest. My eyes burn and vision is off (we are warned not to get a new prescription for glasses during chemo), so I find myself lying still and listening to music or podcasts more than writing or reading. This of course bugs me because reading and writing made me feel minimally productive and kept me from worrying too much about the ongoing hardships of others in my family right now.
Poop. None of this is unbearable stuff, of course, just “not nice.”
Today is Day 4 after chemo and usually I start to feel more like myself on Day 5, so am patiently hoping for a better tomorrow.
I’d read about the possible loss of fingernails and toenails during chemo, but until the “Look Good, Feel Good” gathering the other night, I didn’t know it was pretty much exclusive to one of my particular chemo drugs, Taxotere. Ever since (psychosomatic?), the tips of my fingers and toes occasionally tingle or feel tender, like my scalp before my hair took leave. My fingers are sensitive when I type, which for me is very bothersome. As advised, I cut my nails short and apply olive oil to the cuticles after each hand-washing. If the nails come off, they may or MAY NOT grow back!! If they grow back, they will be nasty looking and ridged for a long, long time. That’s fine . . . I’ll take nasty and ridged!
Another annoying thing the past week is that a blood vessel on the back of my right hand has become chemically “burned up” from chemo. The burn starts at the point of my IV insertion over two weeks ago and travels the pattern of the vein up my arm 2-3 inches. At first it was a thin reddish line, but over the past week has become an angry, dark red, thick line – that today has finally broken through the skin. I watch it for infection and keep it moisturized.
It now seems each round of chemo is going to come with an unpredictable aftermath. This time, though I am sleeping much better, I have less energy. Sometimes when I walk up the stairs I feel I’ve climbed Mt. Everest. My eyes burn and vision is off (we are warned not to get a new prescription for glasses during chemo), so I find myself lying still and listening to music or podcasts more than writing or reading. This of course bugs me because reading and writing made me feel minimally productive and kept me from worrying too much about the ongoing hardships of others in my family right now.
Poop. None of this is unbearable stuff, of course, just “not nice.”
Today is Day 4 after chemo and usually I start to feel more like myself on Day 5, so am patiently hoping for a better tomorrow.
