Saturday, September 18, 2010

thanks for the hot flashes chemo


Today was rough.......a bad day. I am almost two weeks out from chemo but you couldn't tell my body that...it seems to be holding fast to feeling like shit. Nausea hasn't been that bad......but my stomach looks like I could give birth any day now, I have mucositis, which according to wikipedia:

is the painful inflammation and ulceration of the mucous membranes lining the digestive tract, usually as an adverse effect of chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment for cancer.[1] Mucositis can occur anywhere along the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, but oral mucositis refers to the particular inflammation and ulceration that occurs in the mouth. Oral mucositis is a common and often debilitating complication of cancer treatment.[2]

So lucky me, only 5-15% of "cancer patients" gets mucositis, and my oncologist calls me the "poster child" for it. "Anywhere along the gastrointestinal tract", yep I have that too..........and as you can imagine it isn't pleasant. She also told me that I look beautiful bald.....how many people do you think she has told that to?! A bad one liner....

So my bad chemo days now extend to many more days of mucositis. So we will treat the symptoms and add another medication next time prior to chemo hoping that it will lessen the mucositis.

Today was a bad one..........I was hoping when I woke up I would feel better, that not being the case--makes it difficult to put on a happy face. So I stay in bed.............which may sound nice, but after two weeks your body hurts, you feel lazy, unmotivated--like I should be doing something, able to do something....but I can't so that remains the problem. Pain medication helps...takes the edge off of both feeling lazy and the pain, but I remain frustrated.

Lucy pooped all over in her kennel last night. Scott had a race this morning and I wasn't able to go. So he came home and Lucy had did a number on her kennel......so after getting up at like 5 am and running a race he had to come home, literally clean up shit, then do house stuff, then get ready and go to work..........I barely made it out of bed to get water........what a bitch.

So my day consisted of laying in bed and feeling sorry for myself.....a big "poor me" cry over spilled milk type of day. Then I got the mail, there was a care package, a wonderful card and DVD, and a birthday present from my aunt. Life doesn't get better than cards and care packages. I have gotten so many and they are all wonderful. But when the delivery falls on a day like today they are gifts of happiness and laughter. It gets pretty lonely being sick all the time--pity party table for 1. Thank you Tiffany, Madonna and Aunt Betty......tonight you made all the difference.

1 comment:

  1. Hi dori,

    I am really sorry to hear that you now have mucositis, as I'm sure you have been through enough already. However I wanted to let you know about a website that I hope will be helpful to you, as it's all about managing and treating mucositis - http://www.mouthsmadegood.com/EN-US/Managing-OM.asp.

    I hope you find it helpful.

    Best wishes

    ReplyDelete