Chemo Consistancies

Some things that tend to be consistent from Chemo to Chemo.

During the first few days to a week:  

- Food lacks any taste.  Anything with starch tastes like nothing, just texture, even Salt and Vinegar potato chips.  

- I can taste some sweet and some salty.  I can taste eggs with lots of salt and sausage tastes great!

- My teeth feel like I’ve been sanding with a hand sander.  They feel chalky, kind of numb, and like they are vibrating. 

- I can feel my heart beating faster and my blood pressure is lower.

- Every time I have Chemo I forget how my mouth and throat almost instantly dry up and how awful my mouth and everything tastes.

- I have Chemo on Thursday (all but my last time, I had it on Monday) and by Saturday, Sunday, and most of Monday after Chemo I am in bed pretty much all day because I am so tired and weak.

- My legs feel really heavy when I get up from bed.

- It’s harder to take deep breaths.

- My eyes are a little swollen for a couple of days after Chemo.

The entire time:

- I can taste hot chocolate and Darigold Refuel chocolate milk, but I can’t taste any chocolate candy.
- Silk Almond Milk Sweetened Vanilla flavored tastes good and helps sooth my throat and moisten my mouth.

- I will be extremely hot and the next minute extremely cold and back and forth.  It’s like my body can’t regulate its core temperature. 

- Water does not make my mouth and throat feel less dry no matter how much I drink or how hydrated I am. 

- My mouth and throat are so dry that I use a toddler sippy cup while I am sleeping so I can get drinks during the night without sitting up or spilling.  It has an opening like a camelback, so it works great. 

- If my throat is dry it “clicks” when I swallow.

- I develop a mild to severe cough (usually mild) that lasts about a week.

- I never lost every bit of my hair.  There were always short fine white “whiskers” all over my head.

The light is reflecting on the whiskery hairs left on my head.

- My eyebrows and my eyelashes were really thin until about 2 - 3 weeks after my last treatment when my eyelashes started falling out.

-  I lost all the hair in my nose making it dry and sticky.

- I have stripes under my fingernails which correspond with my Chemo treatments (a result of slowed fingernail growth).

I was on my fifth round when I took these pictures.

The last treatment hasn't grown out of the nail bed yet.

- My eyes get really dry and sometimes stick shut while I am sleeping, so I use artificial tears often.

- During my last treatments, about 2 weeks after each treatment, my eyes “tear” or “weep” from the outside edge because Chemo can cause tear ducts to constrict.

- A couple of times my cheeks and chin became numb and red.  When the numbness and red goes away there are broken blood vessels on my cheeks.

- My heels have been numb on a couple of my later treatments.  After my last treatment the bottoms of my feet and my 2nd, 3rd, and 4th toes on both feet were numb.

- The first couple of rounds are the hardest because you are learning what your individual side effects are and what you need to do lessen or prevent them.

- My face was really soft by the end of my Chemo treatments.

- I only had a couple of mild migraines during Chemo compared having at least 1 or 2 severe ones every month.

- The last round takes a lot longer to recover from. 

- Most importantly:  I remember back to previous treatments to remind myself this had happened before and I constantly reassure myself the side effects will go away again.