Side Effects

I am not going to lie to you, radiation and chemo together are no walk in the park. I haven’t left my couch in 3 days, except to go to church.. (and even then I left after I sang on the praise team) and radiation at 10 in the morning. I feel nauseous and tired all the time. And then there is the metallic taste in my mouth… which makes food taste different, and that coupled with the nausea makes for a very hungry yet “doesn’t want to eat anything because she cant stand the taste” Heather. I am not vomiting, which is good and bad.. I think I would rather vomit than feeling like I had to vomit but cant.

I’ve heard that lemon drops help with the metallic taste, so today I am going to get some of those. The nausea however, I cant figure that one out. It isn’t like a “in your face” type of nausea, but instead it is a constant source of discomfort, which gets stronger after radiation (as does the metallic taste in my mouth) I am going to try peppermint today, and if that doesn’t work I am going to call my doctor and see if I can take Compazine during the day… If I am going to be tired, I might as well be able to sleep and not be nauseous (the side effects of Compazine are sleepiness.)

I have one week under my belt of Chemo and radiation (I am not well versed in “cycles” yet, maybe one of you experienced cancer survivors can tell me about that) I have 5 more weeks of radiation and then I go on a higher dose of chemotherapy. Luckily it is a 5 day on / 20something days off cycle for the remainder of the year, so I won’t feel like crap all the time.

They say that it gets worse before it gets better and that means the therapies are working. My husband hands me my chemotherapy pill at night and then says “I feel like I am poisoning you”. And he is… the ingredients in chemotherapy are poison, my body is undergoing a flat out attack right now.

But this too shall pass, as My friend Bethany writes.

Things to pray for:
- That Satan would stay out of my thought life. I have my weak moments, and in them, the thoughts of “what if” creep into my mind.

- Emma. Today is her first day of summer school!

He heals the brokenhearted, binding up their wounds
-Psalms 147:3