A full week

It's now been a full week since my first chemo treatment. Oh my... I didn't know what to expect. It hasn't been anything like what I remember from the After School Special though, not that dramatic. But it still kicked my butt. For the first couple of days I was zooming—big time. All those steroids to prevent allergic reaction had me wide awake. My resting heart rate was 96. If I walked more than a couple of steps I was panting like a dog. It was hard to talk, hard to do anything, except sit still and feel my heart racing. Thank you to my friend Rachael who stayed up with me via telephone until the wee hours of the morning listening to my ramblings.

Soon enough though, the crash came. My legs felt like they weighed 200 pounds each. I was more tired than I ever can remember. And the weirdest, grossest crap I had ever seen started coming out of my nose. I suppose since chemo makes rapidly growing cells die off, and the nasal passages are full of those rapidly growing cells, it makes perfect sense. But holy cow... I must say—I can breathe better through my nose now than I ever could.

That extreme tired lasted a couple of days and then came the pain. Aches and pains like the worst flu pain ever, times 100. Just shifting my weight in a chair caused my muscles to screech out in protest. This is when I started to think about what a great medicine Lortab was, and aren't those drug companies doing some good out there? Yes, Lortab became my best friend.

Finally the aches subsided for the most part; although those sneaky bastards still seem to come back around 4 a.m., most likely just for the amusement of waking me up so they can watch me stumble to the kitchen for a pill. Which wakes the cat who wants to go out, and then I need to eat something so I don't get nauseated by the pill, and then I compulsively check my text messages and respond to TC who texted at 3 a.m., and then the cat wants back in, and well... I get back to sleep for an hour or so around 7 in the morning.

My nose stopped producing baseball sized out castings, and I have a tiny bit of energy back. My fingers and toes are tingly—a somewhat expected side effect, but not as much today as yesterday. It's weird though since I work with my hands so much, it's an odd sensation.

My son has been very patient through this whole week—a few bribes with new Lego sets have helped. He is so used to me being able to play with him constantly; it's been a big change for him. He loves playing with Aunt Linda though... even if her Escalade is "too cool" for Mommy to ride in.

Honestly—I can feel the medicines working. I can see changes.