So it's been about 38 hours since I finished my 5th chemo session! Figured I wouldn't wait a week to update this time haha
We got to the cancer center 30 minutes late because I'm usually slow in the morning, especially on chemo days. I didn't want to skip breakfast because who really wants to feel worse after chemo because you're starving from missing breakfast and roid raging?! No one, that's who. (I don't really roid rage, I just am fucking hangry!!!)
Chemo went by pretty quickly. I chatted with the nurses and the front desk lady. They are so NICE and FRIENDLY that it blows my mind. I love nurses.
Oh yea, I had a PET scan on Thursday, the day before chemo. I couldn't eat 6 hours before I was to be injected with the radioactive sugar at 1PM, so I woke up at 6:30 just to eat breakfast and go back to sleep. We arrive at 1 and wait for 30 minutes. I get injected with radioactive tracer coming from a syringe encased in metal that came out of a metal box. I then get bundled up in blankets and had a space heater blowing at me so that I don't tense up and cause false positives due to bad uptake. I am basically left alone in a room by myself for about an hour with instructions to not text or talk. Naturally, I fall asleep. I get woken up by the radiologist. He compliments me on my cateye makeup not once, but twice! <3 I'm in the boring PET scan machine for what I estimate to be 20 minutes. Of course, I fall asleep asleep again. You would think the novelty of medical procedures would still keep me wide-eyed and awake, but that's now worn off. It's 4PM by the time I'm done and can finally eat.
Okay back to chemo day. I eat a huge lunch and drink like 5 glasses of iced tea to try to combat the intense dehydration I feel after chemo. It doesn't really help and now I'm just peeing every 20 minutes. I get the usual hot flashes, rosy cheeks, and dry mouth and metal taste and in my mouth for the rest of the day. I nap for a few hours but the hot flashes keep waking me up. Being drenched in sweat is not fun to wake up to! For me, it's hard to regulate - I oscillate from shivering cold to sweaty hot easily. That might be the most annoying side effect this round.
Today, I went to the cancer center to get IV fluids to help me feel better. It does help with the dehydration feeling so yay! I walked about 0.8 miles after getting home from lunch and then slept for 3 hours. I don't exactly feel sleepy, just fatigue. The naps help, but the fatigue comes back quickly.
We had a big storm pass through Austin just now that brought pea-sized hail. My poor tangerine plant thing :(
I've got an appointment with my oncologist on Tuesday 4/21 to go over the PET scan results. I am nerrrrrvousss.
I've got an appointment with my oncologist on Tuesday 4/21 to go over the PET scan results. I am nerrrrrvousss.
No comments:
Post a Comment