Whew!

The asthma is mostly gone today. I did experience some of the side effects of chemo yesterday and today. As predicted, I encountered all kinds of weird symptoms. I was nauseated, my ears would ring from time to time, I felt lightheaded and then tired. I slept well and felt good this morning but was hit again about 11:00 am for a couple of hours. By this afternoon I felt good again and went off to do some chores. I think I'll be fine for the rest of the weekend. Next week will be even uglier. I can see how this builds week by week.

++++

I don't like it! I felt like one of Vladimir Puton's poison victims. First, I thought I might be in a first trimester morning sickness syndrome. I can't imagine how any woman works during that time. Miserable feeling. Fortunately, I had the distraction of an occasional school bell going off inside my head. By late afternoon, I thought I might have a case of Bird Flu but that was quickly followed by Cholera. Then, I had a great night's sleep and woke up fresh and energetic...only to be brought to my knees by more nausea just before lunch. At some point, I stood up and realized I must only weight about 12 pounds. I felt light as a feather. I recovered and ran errands around town this afternoon as if I was perfectly normal.

The sad fact is that I'm getting these symptoms with about 60% of the chemo that the average person with cancer gets. On top of that, I've had the week off from radiation which took some of the sting out of it. I have a strong feeling that the next several weeks are not going to be good particularly on Wednesdays and Thursdays. It really helped not to fight the symptoms when they occur. Yesterday, I tried to keep going with planned activity despite how I was feeling. Today, I just gave in and relaxed. Today's strategy worked better.