Day After Chemo

Well, I wasn’t very cheery yesterday, so I figured I owed people an update. 🙂

That pill that “makes you sleepy” absolutely delivered. I went from eyes-can’t-close to eyes-won’t-stay-open in about 30 minutes, on the smallest dose. And I slept right through my usual backaches (I am still stuck sleeping on my back with pillows propping up my arms), so it was probably the most solid sleep I’ve had in weeks. Added bonus, I had this pathetic kennel cough thing going on, lingering from a Thanksgiving cold situation. When I told the oncologist, he said it was OK and that the steroids might just clear it up. Which they did – no more cough.

Yay, drugs, I guess.

And I woke up feeling pretty okay. I held off taking the oral steroids until I got my daughter safely off to school, just in case I get all stupidly awake again – fingers crossed. This is also a medicine I will be taking on work days, so hopefully it’s not going to affect my concentration like yesterday, or productivity may be pretty impaired…Squirrel! I’ve been told I need to take more detailed notes when working through chemo, to help with memory and concentration, so expect unicorn notebooks at the office. Honestly, many of my co-workers had already been warned that Kate’s memory is being impaired by stress before I went out on leave, and everyone was super supportive with appropriate amounts of nagging if I forgot something. 🙂

Meanwhile, I’ve got a ton of as-needed anti-nausea drugs to try over the next five days, once I need them. The recommendation from the oncology nurses is to basically try them all and see what side effects I get before I come back to work. That way I won’t take anything that puts me to sleep right before I should drive home. 🙂 Also, they correctly surmised that I won’t pay proper attention to side effects if I have something better to do (like work), so getting a log together over the next few days is probably wise.

All the oncology nurses are amazing. There were quite a few people in the infusion room, many of them much older or sicker than me. The nurses adeptly adjusted to the patient they were working with, whether they were very experienced patients or very frightened ones. No surprise, I ended up laughing with my nurse quite a bit. Before I could go home with my pod of medicine strapped to my arm, I had to sit through a patient education video about it. The video featured an actress playing an oncology nurse, who also got to play “background patient” in another shot. This is presumably how you avoid hiring more than two actresses to make your pharmaceutical video, but it made for a funny little. . . wait. . . isn’t that Rita-the-nurse-with-perfect-hair-who does-all-medical-procedures? moment. Made me giggle. It’s amazing how Rita can be everyone’s nurse, including her own, while simultaneously doing all the voiceover. Actress-playing-patient had no lines, just got to make worried face, relaxed face, and happy face.

Anyway, I’m doing much better than yesterday, feel much more myself. Thanks again for all the kind thoughts and wishes, they do help!

Kate