The treatments themselves are fine with the only “pain” coming from the cannulas being inserted but even then the initial pain is literally a pin prick. I did experience at the start of my treatment two needles from cannulas breaking in my arm. The nurse trying to fit them commented on how it may have been my “tough” skin causing this until I pointed out to her that she was in fact hitting my bone whilst doing this. She got another nurse to do it in the end! To be fair, that has been the only time I have had any issues with the nurses, all the ones I have been involved with have been great fun as well as being thoroughly professional in every way. I think broken needle nurse was just having a bad day at the time.
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| Unfortunately, they don't serve wine intravenously |
The worse part of all the treatments has been the side effects and these have ranged from eye infections where I have been unable to see, joint pain, varying digestion issues, a squeaky voice etc but the main two side effects that have affected me the most are the weight gain from the steroids and the horrible tiredness. The weight gain is a by product from the steroids and this also comes with hyperactivity so for a while it wasn’t unknown for me to be up at 3am thinking of things to do! I always thought people with cancer are pale and wan and feeble looking except that from my own experiences, I look like I’ve just eaten one too many Krispy Kreme doughnuts with my moon face and Michelin man body! Never mind. Apparently, it does go over time.
As an aside and in case you were wondering – I still have my hair although it is shorter. The chemo I have had so far doesn’t result in hair loss but I will lose it during my stem cell transplant (the chemo used is stronger and nastier) and so I thought I would prepare for it by cutting my hair short. I had been advised that to off-set the shock of losing my hair not only for me but for others, it was a good idea to cut it all off. So I went for it. I’m going to go bald anyway! I have to say that although my short hair cut is good and people have commented on how it suits me etc I really do miss my long hair :-(
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| All my long hair gone - August 2010 |
The tiredness on the other hand is something else. I have never felt anything like it before - it feels like a really bad hangover crossed with jet lag whilst having been up all night – but worse! I have lost days sometimes just getting over it, mostly in front of daytime television – the 3rd mystery property may have come from auction as there was cash in the atttic? Or was it because the home abroad decided to come dine with me?!
photos courtesy of vanessavanillaflavour
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