The Side Affects Story.

Part of the world of old wives tales and dare I say, the bits that certain people love chatting about, (these would be the people that never had any direct experience with chemotherapy you understand) are those dreaded side affects of the treatment. 

To date, the loss of energy is my own biggest hit. A feeling of tiredness that's connected to time. 

Come 2-3pm, my batteries are dipping, so that's when I listen to my body and pop my head down for a rest. 

Remember science class in school: "For every action (Chemotherapy), there is an equal and opposite reaction (the tiredness). As I'm on a side course of steroids for 3 days post IV Chemo, it's going to slow down my sleeping habits till later in the week, there's that science rule kicking in again. 

On my current cocktail of meds, I'm still waiting on the 'metallic taste' in the back of my mouth to arrive. 

It hasn't arrived yet, but I appear to have developed an obscure variant of it. When drinking cold water, as it passes down my throat, the feeling is that the water is turning to ice crystals. How weird is that ?

Pins and needles in my fingers have dropped by to say hello, so I can tick this one off the list too. 

The hair loss seems to be taking it's time, but as I alluded to before, with my blade 1 haircut, it's not really a deal breaker. As the treatment progress's the side affects will change too. The secret is to be ready for them. 

I find my oncology team in the Bons Secour extremely proactive in this regard. It's not unusual for me to be bringing home samples of products from a treatment session, well in advance of having to need it. 

Of course, we are all different. Our bodies will all react differently to what it's been given to it. 

The bottom line in my book is, look to the far side of the side affect, which can be difficult. 

A constant balancing act, is the bowel movements, as constipation is always lurking around, again as a direct 

result of the meds. So trying to drink plenty of water is key. I can assure you, drinking a lot of water is harder than you might think so flavouring it with dashes of juice is always a good idea. So late nighty loo calls are always on the agenda. 

I've purposely left the most important side effect till last. 

My white blood cell count is quiet low

This means at present I stand an excellent chance of catching your infection. 

So please, please, if coming or intending to visit or meet up with me, assess yourself. 

If you are feeling ill, or if you have any cough or flu like symptoms, please stay away from me. 

If you are feeling well but your family or close work colleagues are feeling unwell, please stay away also. 

This requirement from you is very much a necessity for me and I do hope you understand. 

Thanks as always for reading the blog.