I had my fourth round of chemo. I also met with my doctor yesterday to discuss my chemo side-effect symptoms and the next step of treatment.
One troubling side effect lately has been an almost continuously running nose and eyes. I look like I am crying much of the time. There is nothing to be done about that, except wait it out.
The most persistent side effect is chemo anemia, which explains why I am so tired all the time, and often feeling cold. The doc said it’s like I just donated two pints of blood. It's frustrating to be so unable to do anything at all physically demanding. I can still manage to pick up my six-pound dog Pixie, which is a good thing because sometimes on her walks she sits herself down and looks at me as if to say, "You don't actually expect me to keep moving, do you?"
My next round of chemo is with a different drug: Paclitaxel (Taxol). It has a lot of the same side effects plus the possibility of nerve damage in the hands… and some people have an allergic reaction to it. Well, you can imagine that I was not happy about hearing that. Let's hope I am not one of the statistics.
I’ve been meditating every morning and my ability to focus on specific tasks has improved. I am keeping up with my editing work, which helps me feel less like a slug.
Can’t say that my general mental attitude is great, though. I just hate feeling under the weather and knowing that this is going to continue for months.
No comments:
Post a Comment