A Week Is A Long Time In Chemotherapy

So it's just over a week since my first chemotherapy and I have to say it has been the longest week.

Unlike the last time I did chemotherapy where I felt absolutely rubbish within hours and got progressively better as the week wore on, this time round I felt fabulous the day after, thanks to the steroids, the following day my legs started to hurt a lot and continued to do so for the next 2 days. Once this had abated the diarrhoea started and that was at best exhausting.

The hospital says to phone if you are concerned about anything and by and large the hospital are very good at dealing with my concerns. However, after the first day of diarrhoea I called the chemo unit and asked what I should be doing. There then followed a long discussion about my diarrhoea and the nurse, who I feel does not inspire confidence, said I should wait  and see. So I did. Fortunately the following day the nurse who actually administers my chemo called and said that I really shouldn't be putting up with more than 3 episodes a day, irrespective of consistency, and that it was all right for me to take some Imodium. Hooray!

So I take the medicine and things start to settle down, which is such a relief.

At the same time as all of this has been the ongoing nose bleed, which I haven't bothered to tell the hospital about as I'm really not sure what they could do. My nose is sore and breathing gets more difficult as my nostrils fill with scabs and blood clots. Suffice to say that clearing the debris is painful but necessary and it does seem that the bleeding is reducing.

Yesterday also marked my first social outing in a week. I was very iffy about going out as I was feeling fairly rubbish, but mentally I really needed to go. So off we go to my husband's old boys quiz night. Initially I did feel crap and had already warned that an early departure might be in the offing. However, as the evening wore on and fish and chips (well I only had the chips as I couldn't face the fish) were consumed I felt much better. We've been going to this quiz for years and finally this year we won. Definitely worth going out.