And the Treatments Begin

Needless to say the initial treatment, well the anticipation of that initial treatment, was just absolutely scary.  Here I was going to have gosh-knows what kinds of chemicals put into my body in order to fight and kill cells, both good cells and bad cells.  And I was going to have to endure this for the next 16 weeks (8 sessions every two weeks)!  I was going to have to be torn down to the core was how I was looking at it in order to be re-built and re-stored to better than before.  Not really my idea of 'getting all better', but nonetheless here we go.

My treatments are on Mondays, so the remainder of that first week was more about getting accustomed to how I was feeling.  And of course not enjoying how I was feeling.  I kept notes to share with the medical staff.  I simply did not and still do not enjoy the experience.  And there's medications to be taken the remainder of the chemo week for nausea management, so I have a calendar where I track the dosages and times. And yes I have invested in three of those lovely plastic pill boxes with the days of the week different colors and sizes of course.  The day of chemo, one medication is to be taken that evening, nothing else that day.  But starting with the day after, here comes the medications and the vitamins.  By the time I take them all I am so bloated from drinking all that water!!  But it's all for the good.  And water is good for us of course.

Chemo kills my sense of taste and alters my sense of smell.  I smell to a high degree the chlorine in our water.  And although the thought of a piece of chocolate candy appeals to my brain, the taste of it is not describable really, and most foods have no taste.  So chemo removes the enjoyment of eating, but we must eat still.  Canned soup tastes the best and fried potatoes with fried onions.  NO SALT as my mouth has become its own salt box.

When it came time for treatment #2, I shared my notes and my dosages were tweaked and the second chemo week's reactions were not as bad.  The worse part for me from the first two treatments was the nausea.  After chemo#2 I lost my hair.

For chemo#3 I reported the nausea.  Well my doctor feels I should never experience nausea, while I thought it was a given side-effect, so again he tweaked my dosages and indeed I did not experience the nausea to the same level as the first two weeks, so it was managed during the treatment itself as well as    by my medications.  And Sharon is now a happy chemo treatment patient!!  Well that is all relative of course.

And I am ecstatic to announce I have completed 50% of my chemo treatments!!  Yeah!  Yep, this past Monday was chemo#4.  Major milestone mentally, half-way through.  The last four sessions will not consist of the same chemo meds, but will be replaced.  So my next session I will learn more from the doctor just what this medication is all about and anticipated side-effects.

Still not sure where this journey is taking me, but I will know when I get there.   One day at a time is all I can do; and that is all I ask for.