06-08-2020
I’m the only one home (in human form), which it’s been awhile without someone here besides the dogs and me. It gives me time, without interruption to read about my new camera, which is a LUMIX, mirrorless G7 version. I have a Samsung mirrorless, but it doesn’t have a built in eye piece and, while it takes amazing photos, it makes me crazy when trying to shoot any fast moving things, since my eye is trained to use an eye piece for composition and tracking, and it’s much easier to hold steady when following action subjects.
Any way, it’s fun to learn about all the cool features of this compact little camera, and the attached photos are from the new camera.
06-09-2020
Treatment room activities started with me and the neuropathy I’ve had the past few days. I have neuropathy from my neck, but it’s gotten worse in the last few days. It’s all on my right side, and mostly my fingers, but also my foot/toes at times. I brought it up after dropping a few things this week, and poking myself in the face when I thought I had more room, but my fingers were numb, so didn’t feel the initial contact right away.
Lili wasn’t comfortable starting treatment until she talked to Ellie, who quickly visited me in the cancer treatment center, after she talked to the oncologist. Checking to see if I could still button, buttons, which I can still do, is a good litmus test, so the treatment went ahead, but now I know to keep track of any issue in that area.
Warning?
I didn’t sleep last night and didn’t do a good job fasting, but still got 18 hours in. I was extra hungry for some reason, and so decided to eat, since my body seemed to need nutrition and I was getting emotionally stressed with trying to deal with my hunger and fasting, so decided to have a salad to hold me over.
My gut has been great all week with taking the meds before symptoms, and I made it all the way to Monday before needing to dose several times yesterday, including through the night and I finally took the max does around 5 am this morning. It finally worked, but not without being up a bunch of times during the night and early this morning to pray to the toilet Gods far too many times. Luckily it wasn’t painful like it’s been in the past.
Do I need to put a warning when talking about gut issues, if so, this is my warning, but it is important to understand, and I’ll try to be funny about it, in a gross sort of way, but if you are or know anyone going though chemo, the gut is something that affects many, both men and women.
With that in mind, I know a lot of people hate talking, reading, or dealing with diarrhea and other gut issues, but it’s about as real as it gets with chemo, and part of the planning and caring for oneself.
After all, Elvis was rumored to have died sitting on the toilet with a blockage in his gut, and all kinds of sad and funny rumors and comedy followed, (not too soon, right?). He died of a heart attack, but the rumor mill is still about his bathroom death, pointing to our general discomfort of bathroom habits in general.
On a personal level, I wonder, with my own porcelain pondering moments, how anyone could go to work each day if they have gut issues, including nausea often associated with chemo?
How does one deal with anticipating needing to get to a bathroom quickly, many, many times, with lots of unnatural, loud noises, and the smell of dead, rotting frogs in a nearly dried out creek, none of which should be inside one’s gut and released on the rest of the non-chemo world?
And it is totally at the whim of the colon’s sense of humor, or evil intents as to what will be one’s fate each day. Who knows how a colon thinks, but warped comes to mind in my conclusion, and I just imagine that in the workplace, everything is even more stressful and embarrassing for those that must share bathrooms—total control of people, that perverse colon.
I think anyone going through chemo should have paid leave, or work from home situations, since it seems like it would be more cost-effective not to have to have an employee married to the bathroom to the tune of hours per day. Add that to all the extra cleaning, (chemo vomit, urine and poop are toxic for up to two days after treatment and require special handling of the area and waste, like flushing two times and wearing gloves for cleaning, etc), and potential clogs with all the extra paper and wipes it takes to clean up after an episode. It’s truly a shit storm, no pun intended.
It seems like a no brainer to work from home, or get paid leave for chemo, in general, but I haven’t seen where it’s common to offer either. The only good thing with the Covid19 is that it is still rampant, and many people are still working from home, so in some ways this is helpful to prevent getting the virus, but also it’s easier to deal with all the side effects from chemo if one is “lucky” enough to have to go through Chemo with all that is going on right now.
On a positive note, I was actually able to sleep during the treatment today. It was after the Benadryl, which made me really sleepy since I didn’t get much last night, and was able to override the steroid, as least for a time. When I got home, I also had an hour nap, so that’s a first since the steroid tends to wire me up, and I’m grateful I got a few ZZZZZS and rest for my toxic body.
I also found out, that after the last chemo treatment, (four weeks from now), the two drugs I will get every three weeks for the next year, don’t need any of the pre-chemo drugs, so will be less than two hours long, and I should not have the sleep issues, other than one’s I have now and then anyway. That’s something to look forward to, for sure.
Time for some rest and mindless thought that allow me to check out, even when I can’t sleep. That entails games on the internet, funny books to listen to, watching weird TV shows, which, right now includes Hogan’s Hero’s, of all things. That was really an interesting show with a progressive cast and stories, all the while, “getting,” the bad guys, both figuratively and metaphorically.
So, for my final warning, I’m letting my brain turn to shit to help my body recover.
