RIse and Shine

Good early morning! It is the morning after chemo and I have essentially been up since 2 a.m. Between my mind and body not wanting to be still and shut off during the night on the Fri. and Sat. after chemo, I don't seem to get much sleep. Hopefully I can get a little nap in today and tomorrow. Yes I said nap!

5 chemo treatments down and 7 to go! Almost 1/2 way done. This should make me excited but all I can really think about are the surgeries ahead of me. I have come to terms with getting the double mastectomy and oophrectomy (?) but I cannot make up my mind about what do to after that.

As I have stated before the side affects are mild with this chemo, relatively easy to manage. I took Claritan for 2 days after chemo last week and my acne face rash didn't get as bad. I also have saline mist for my nose which helped with the bloody crusty nose.

I wanted to take a moment to list all of my side effects. Hopefully not to bore you, but this is also sort of my dairy and I just wanted to have it listed out so I could remember.

Side effects:

Acne face and chest rash

Nose irritation with some bleeding

Mild nausea

Bad taste in throat (Day 2-4 after chemo)

Mouth raw (Day 3-5 after chemo)

Mouth sores (Did occur at week 4)

Striped nail beds

Neuropathy of hands (Day 4-6 after chemo, did not occur after treatment #4)

Dry and cracking finger tips

Dry and cracking lips

Difficulty sleeping (Day 1-3 after chemo, probably from steroid)

Muscle fatigue with activity (mostly occurs with strength type activities)

Tender to touch on back of neck and shoulders (Day 2 after chemo)

Intermittent pain in thighs, hips, shoulders and back (Usually more towards Day 5-6 after chemo)

Hair stopped growing again (Shaved it off again)

I did have a rash all over my body for about a week but I think it was a reaction to the sun

I wanted to thank Nancy (Jen's mom) for taking me to chemo last week. I was I little worried about taking Nancy with me. She does not sit still very well and there is a lot of sitting at chemo. She did great, only had to get up and take a walk once. I have to say it was really nice having her with me. She bragged on me like one only wishes their mother would brag. She really made me feel good about myself that day and a daughter needs that on occasion.

Jen has scheduled to have shoulder surgery on July 30th. That should be my off week from chemotherapy. She has a partially, but significantly torn rotator cuff (supraspinatus muscle). Please wish us luck as we tackle this in our already crazy life. I just hope we can keep some since of normalcy for our little guy. I often wonder how all this will effect him. He has been through a lot in his short 3 1/2 years of life.