February 10, 2015 (Day 1) -
Today I woke up and felt great, in fact I felt 100%. I got up and went to
work for a full day. It felt good to feel so normal. I do not even
feel like I had a treatment yesterday, however I know it is still early in the
week and side effects are still possible. I sure hope they are mild
should they appear, I could really use a break after all that I endured during
AC treatment. I only got about 5 hours of sleep last night so I imagine I will
call it a night quite early tonight as I am really tired. I also made my
family dinner, everything about my day was so normal and it felt great. I
hope I wake up tomorrow and feel good so that I can have another
"normal" day.
February 11, 2015 (Day 2) - I slept good last night but still woke up
exhausted. My energy level is down today but I still worked for most of
the day. I feel a little tingle in my fingers and toes today which is a
side effect of this chemo. I also feel like I am getting Kaci's head cold,
I hope I can kick it fast. I came home from work and immediately took a
little nap. Melissa brought over dinner again tonight; she is so nice and
thoughtful. I am going to go to bed early again tonight. I need to
listen to my body and rest when it tells me to.
February 12, 2015 (Day 3) - I
slept 10 hours last night and still woke up tired. I got ready for work
anyway and made it in a little after 8:00AM. I probably would not have
gone in today but knowing that Dee wasn't there to do the purchasing I thought
I could at least go in and help out for a couple of hours. I only made it
until 10:30AM and then went home. I came home and ate some lunch and was
asleep by 11:30AM and didn't wake up until 2:45PM, I was that tired. After
I woke up I felt a little better but I am still lacking all of my energy.
I have been a little dizzy today and I am sure it is because I am dehydrated as
I haven't been able to drink much; I have a different yucky taste in my mouth
now. I have been trying to drink a lot of water today with the hopes it
will help the dizziness. I also have diarrhea which doesn't help my fluid
intake as you lose electrolytes, I may have to resort to taking the Imodium
that the doctor had me buy to keep on hand in case this happened. I
still have some tingling in my fingers and felt it today as I was typing and
really felt it when I had to cut up chicken for our dinner tonight. I
hope it doesn't get worse; it really was a challenge to cut up the chicken
tonight. I also feel a little achy but not too bad. I am nervous to
say this but I do feel that this chemo thus far is way easier than the AC but I
know that I am only 3 days into it. I just hope and pray that I don't get
any weird surprises and that this is how bad I am going to feel. This
chemo is also cumulative so the side effects might get worse or like on the AC
they might get a little easier each round. The only problem with the AC
was the surprises but by the 4th round my energy was not zapped as much as it
was the first round. Only time will tell.
February 13, 2015 (Day 4) - I
woke up not feeling good today. I was doing Kaci's hair for school and
felt like I was going to pass out, I was really dizzy. I decided to not
go in to work and just spend the day in bed. My legs also hurt; I have a
lot of aches and pains in them. I took Tylenol this morning but it didn't
help so I took some Motrin during lunch and that seemed to help take the edge
off. My doctor doesn't want me taking Motrin every day as it can thin my
blood and the chemo will also thin my blood but he said it is okay to alternate
between Tylenol and Motrin. I just wish Tylenol worked for me but it just
doesn't. I feel okay almost 5 hours since I took the Motrin and will not
take it again unless I get desperate. I still have a little bit of tingle
in my hands but I don't feel it anymore in my feet. Hopefully the side
effects will start to wear off. We want to go to the RV show and dinner
tomorrow but I just don't know if I can handle all of that. The climbing
into the trailers will be hard for me with my legs hurting like they do, plus I
don't have a whole lot of energy. I know tomorrow is a new day but I
don't like being away from home when I don't feel good. I get really
nervous and emotional. I will see how I feel when I wake up and maybe we
can go in the afternoon. We always look forward to the RV show every
year, it gets us excited about spring and upcoming camping season. I will
be upset if we cannot make it but I also know that I need to listen to my body
and not over do it. Tonight's plans are take out for dinner since I don't
have the energy to cook and watch Undercover Boss and Shark Tank, if I can stay
awake that long.
February 14, 2015 (Day 5) -
Happy Valentine’s Day! We had to wake up at 7:30AM to exchange our
Valentine's and then Kaci had a dance practice at 9:00AM. Kaci is so
sweet she did a treasure hunt for me to find the Valentine she bought for me,
the only problem was that I was very dizzy and not feeling good at all.
It was extremely hard because she just wants to make me happy and I was a
mess. I started crying over it and couldn't stop, I felt so bad to ruin
that for her. She was still excited when we drove up to the mailbox to
find my presents in our mailbox. She thought it out so carefully and
spent a long time last night getting everything together. She also put a
ton of cute hearts that she cut out on our bedroom door, she called it a
"heart attack". She is so thoughtful and more excited to give us
our presents than she was for us to give her hers. I only wish I would
have felt better and not broke down. Our day did not go as planned, I
could not go to the RV show, I just didn't have the energy nor did I feel very
good. We ended up going to Village Inn for a late breakfast and came home
and called it day. I slept the afternoon away and then got up and made
spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. It was hard to make dinner so I had
to sit down the entire time but I did it. We are tentatively planning on
going to the RV show tomorrow but if I don't feel up to it then Jeff and Kaci
will go without me. It will be hard to stay home by myself but I don't
like making them miss out on things because of me. I keep hoping the side
effects will subside but so far they haven't. I still must say though,
this is still easier than the nausea and fatigue I had with AC but I don't like
being drained of energy because then I am home bound and cannot do
anything. The pain I had in my legs is a lot less today, I haven't needed
to take any pain killers but my hands are still tingly and numb. I guess
I trade one set of side effects for another.
February 15, 2015 (Day 6) -
Yahoo, today was a great day!!! I woke up and felt pretty good so we got
ready and went to the RV show. It was so fun to feel normal and have fun
with my family. We love the RV show and always get so excited for spring
and the upcoming camping season. The only thing I am feeling today is the
tingling in my fingers and I still do have a little bit in my feet, I thought
it was gone but after walking around all day at the RV show I do still feel it
in my feet. I hope that I don't get any surprises this week; it seems
like all my surprises while I was on AC happened this week. I am feeling
pretty positive that I won't have any weird side effects on this regimen.
I plan on going to work all week but I do have a couple of appointments this
week. One of them is Pam's last day of chemo and I am going to be there
on Thursday when she rings the bell, I am so excited for her and I cannot wait
until it is my day to celebrate and ring the bell. I know it will be here
before I know it but right now March 23rd feels so far away. Here is to a
good week with feeling good, working and feeling like a normal person!!!
February 16, 2015 (Day 7)- I had another great day. I went to work all day but did leave for a little while to go to Debra Lyn's to get fitted for my new prosthesis and bras. I can't wait to have a normal looking chest again. It has been 13 weeks since my surgery and I only have a little bit of pain these days and sometimes it is still hard to sleep in certain positions. After all the lousy days I have had due to the chemo I hardly feel it some days. I am excited to be able to wear all of my old clothes again. I have been wearing some of them but there are some things I cannot wear because my knitted breast forms don't look quite right under them. I can't wait to look like the old me again, I should get everything next week. I can't believe how different my life really is, I never thought I would be shopping for new breasts. After work mom and I went shopping for a little while and by the time I got home it was 5:00PM and I was totally worn out. Jeff was almost home so we decided to go get something to eat rather than cook. After all the doses of chemo I have had I get tired really easy now. I know I still have 3 more doses left and I hope it doesn't get worse than this. For a while I will probably just have to go to bed earlier than I did before.
February 18, 2015 (Day 9) - This week has been pretty normal for me. I don't have any new side effects or surprises. My eyes have started to water pretty bad again, they almost cleared up a couple of weeks ago but they are back at. I may just have to put up with it until chemo is completely done. I really don't have that much longer until I am done with it. It is only a month from this upcoming Monday, I can't wait! I plan on working full days the rest of the week and taking it easy when I get home from work. I may not be posting again for a few days unless there is something new to report.
Sunday, February 22, 2015 - The rest of my week continued to be very normal. On Thursday I was able to go hang out with Pam as she received her last chemo treatment, it was bitter sweet because I had to say goodbye to her as well, she is moving back to California this next week. She was the first person I talked to during my first treatment and has become a really good friend. I actually looked forward to Friday this week because I was able to work all week and was ready for a weekend break. I have dreaded Friday's in the past because then I knew on Monday I would get chemo and feel terrible for a week and a half. On Saturday Jeff and I were able to go out on a date, we went to dinner and then went to Ikea to look around. After that we hit two different Kohl's stores, Gordman's, Marshall's and Home Goods. I got a bug and decided to redecorate my bedroom. I have hated my bedroom these days because I have spent so much time in there after surgery and during AC chemo that it just became a place that I dreaded going into due to the constant reminder of how I felt while I was in there. Jeff and I were able to find exactly what I was looking for. We got a new comforter and decorations and it is totally different than what it was and find the new decor soothing to look at. I was going to wait until I was all the way done with chemo but where this Taxol doesn't make me feel nearly as lousy I decided to do it now. We still have a few things left to do and find but for now, I love it. My weekend was very good and successful.
Side Effects from Taxol:
-Watery eyes and I was told that this will probably stay around until I am done with chemo
-Heartburn- I continued to take Pepcid twice a day until the side effects wore off on Sunday the 15th.
-Leg pain for 2-1/2 days
-Tingling in hands and feet for a few days after the treatment
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