I have a little bit of anxiety the week leading up to my chemo treatments. The anxiety stems from the unknown, as well as the known. I knew how bad I felt after my first treatment. I knew how dry and painful my skin on my face got. I knew how my body ached. My tummy ached. How food tasted horrid. But, I also don't know how my body will react the second time around. Will I have the same skin problems? Will I vomit this time? Will I have diarrhea this time? The hair was already gone, so I didn't have to worry about that one anymore. That was nice!
My sister was still in town from Colorado when I went in for my second chemo treatment. So, I thought it would be fun to have my mom and two sisters at chemo with me. My sister was heading back to Colorado this day, and my parents were headed to Moab to spend some time/Christmas with my brother and his family there, so it was good to get some good sister giggles in before they all left. When you get all of us together we don't know how to do anything BUT have a good time!
Before each chemo treatment, I have my blood drawn. This is so my doctor can look at my blood count to see if my body is strong enough for the next treatment. According to my doctor, everything looked good. My weight was still up. I felt good. I was ready to get another round of chemo in the books!
I did let my doctor know that I had a lot of nausea the first week after my first chemo treatment. I told him I was taking my anti-nausea meds, but nothing seemed to help subside the nausea. I gave me a different concoction of anti-nausea meds to go through my port. He told me what they were called, but I can never pronounce the names of medication, let alone remember their names! However, I was excited for them because he said they'd have a delayed release, so I probably won't have a problem with the nausea.
In the very very beginning, he told me that I probably won't have a problem with nausea or vomiting anyway, because that typically happens to people with high anxiety, and "I seem like a pretty cool cat." Well, as cool as I may appear, and as much as I don't have high anxiety, I still get nauseous! And the meds still didn't work!
So, nausea was still a big nasty side effect of my second chemo treatment. It lasted 8 days. It was a night out with friends, filled with lots of laughter, that kicked the last bits of nausea out of my system! However, my face did not break out! Thank heavens! I did not want to go through that again. After my first chemo treatment, and skin issues, my sister-in-law gave me a big tub of Cetaphil moisturizing cream, and I used globs of that daily. I also wash my face and scalp with Cetaphil gentle face wash. I slept for the first two days after treatment, and I was grateful that I was still on Christmas break from school, so I didn't have to worry about taking time off from work.
The first few days after chemo throw me into a little depression. I'm sure some of the reason is because I just pumped my body full of harsh chemicals/drugs/poison, but I also think some of it is from laying in bed for a few days and just downright feel crappy in my tummy. However, by the third day I feel the need to pull myself out of it and force myself out of bed. So, even though I wasn't feeling 100%, I forced myself out of bed and faced the world. I figure if the worst I have to deal with is the nausea, then I can suck it up and carry on. My mouth burned again, and the foods tasted horrible that first week, but my appetite was coming back and I was starting to feel myself again by about day 5. Which is good, because school started back up then. Good thing it started on a Thursday though, so I could enjoy sleeping in again on the weekend. :)
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| Love these women!!!!! |
That night after chemo, I spent some time at the pediatric night clinic with my oldest son. He had come down with pink eye in both eyes! Pink eye was running rampant down here, and spreading like a wildfire. I wanted to get him some eye-drops before I was going to be down and out and able to do anything about it for a few days. It was fun to spend some "one-on-one" time with him, even though it was was the doctor's office. I felt great, and couldn't believe that I had just had a chemo treatment hours before. But I knew it wouldn't be too long before I was going to be laying in bed feeling cruddy, so I was taking advantage of spending some time with him. And that meant piggyback rides through the parking lot! During my chemo brain recovery, I asked my wonderful sister-in-law if she would watch our kids while Ian and I took a weekend getaway to Vegas! She wonderfully said YES! Which was just the escape we needed. Before all of this breast cancer craziness started, our lives were crazy busy. I was training to run my first marathon, which I completed 9 days before the initial diagnosis! I was also in school full-time working on getting my Special Education teaching license, working part-time as a Special Education teacher, being a wife and mother. All the while, my husband was busy supporting me in all of my crazy adventures and adjusting to his recent career change. I also had to lay to rest my triplet brother, at the young age of 31 at the end of July, so my family has been through the ringer in 2013! Now that we had a couple rounds of chemo under our belt, and our schedules were slowing down just a bit, only to get busy again because I am able to finish my final semester in college this semester, my husband and I realized that we needed and wanted to take a break. To sleep!
We kissed our kids good-bye and loaded our bald heads in the car on a Friday afternoon, and headed to Vegas. We checked into our hotel by around 4:00, and took a nap until 7:30. We woke up to go eat dinner and then went back to bed! We repeated that cycle the whole weekend! It was the most relaxing time we had in a long time. We felt a little guilty at first, like we should actually go out and do something. But then I said no way. I left town so that I could get some good, quiet, uninterrupted sleep. It was the most expensive nap(s) I have ever taken, but it was needed and well deserved! Plus the kids had an absolute wonderful time playing with their Aunt. It was a win-win situation for everyone!
We jumped back into our crazy busy life as soon as we got back. college was in session, and round 3 of chemo was waiting in the horizon.
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