Chemo...A Week Later

After having my first round of chemo last Tuesday, I’ve learned that things never go as planned. Sure, the doctor laid out what symptoms I was “supposed” to get and which days they “should” show up, but I realized that everybody is different and I can’t rely on that.

On the day of the treatment, everything seemed to be ok overall aside from exhaustion. That night, though, I found out that I couldn’t get a wink of sleep. One of the chemo drugs is a steroid which aided in me laying there feeling exhausted but not able to fall asleep.

Early the next morning, I was feeling nauseous. I went back to the oncologist to get my immunity booster shot only to have him tell me that I shouldn’t be feeling that nauseous already and that I need to go get an IV hydration infusion and different anti-nausea meds.

Back to the treatment center we went and sat for a few hours while I got the IVs of meds and hydration along with the immunity booster shot. Several hours after my shot, severe bone aches set in and it was so painful i couldn’t move or walk for days.

Four days of laying on the couch in pain only to be able to sit up for a little bit each day...

Four days of needing help to do basic things...

It was the most grueling pain I have ever been through. So, when people say “oh you have one chemo down and five more to go!” they don’t realize all of the side effects that pop up days after that go along with it. (Of course, I wouldn’t know that either if I hadn’t been through it.)

It took 8 days for me to feel like a decent human being again with no side effects. I still move slow and I’m slowly going out in the world again but it feels good to function! Chemo (at least in my situation) doesn’t just end on the day I get it. It effects each and every day after that.

Thank you all for your continued thoughts and prayers! This email is meant to be more of an update on the specifics of how I'm doing, but last night I wrote a blog post on more of my thoughts about my journey so far.  You can check that out here.

Kim