11.17.22

To be honest I don’t know how they count the days. Is it 24 hours after you finish your first treatment? Do you count the day you get your treatment as day one? Not really sure. I’m kind of going off of the hours after treatment. I finished my first chemo round Monday afternoon. 24 hours later: Tuesday afternoon. 48 hours later: Wednesday. 72 hours later: Thursday. Makes sense to me! haha.

These first three days haven’t been too bad. Praying my days continue this route. I’ve heard the next couple could be a little more rough so we’ll see. As far as my side effects so far… While I was getting one of my anti nausea meds Monday I noticed my legs getting kind of tingly. It’s a steroid one, she said that is normal. The rest of the day whenever I was sitting my legs would tingle. That did go away by the next day though! I also noticed that first night my legs would get warm and then my head/face. I guess it’s a glimpse into the future of hot flashes for me 😉🤣🙂. Thankfully that hasn’t been too bad yet. I noticed it Monday evening. I maybe have felt warm once or twice since then. Although my skin will look flushed once in awhile. So if you notice that I’m a little pink/red it is just the chemo. Tuesday I noticed what kind of felt like heartburn. I plan to let my oncologist know. It was nothing terrible. Just kind of a burning sensation in my stomach area. I had heart burn towards the end of most of my pregnancies and it wasn’t anything like that! Thankfully it’s more just the sensation right now. I am pushing a lot of water so maybe that contributes a little?? This morning I woke up feeling a little more punky. Kind of like I could be coming down with something. It’s a weird sensation. Your stomach just feels off. I don’t feel like I’m going to throw up or anything, but the desire to eat something isn’t really there either. I do eat though! I need to with my one nausea med. If I remember right, I think this one that I’ll finish today can also cause headaches. I had one last night and woke up with it this morning. After the Tylenol had a chance to kick in I felt much better. To be honest what I have felt so far is really nothing to complain about! I feel a little silly sharing about it because it’s so minimal compared to what some people go through!

You learn a lot when you are thrown into the thick of it. Did you know that chemo and your body fluids are a thing?!? 😳 Yeah. For the first three days after treatment I’m supposed to make sure to close the toilet lid when I flush the toilet. (Not a big deal because I already did that but still. Talk about being acutely aware of bodily fluids in general! 🤣) The new rule in our house. No more sharing with mom. A couple of reasons. One being the whole chemo in my system. And two, my immune system being more compromised now. No point in sharing colds! haha! And on that note, I get to take my temp every day to make sure I’m not getting sick. I’m on strict orders. Even if it’s 3 am on Christmas Eve. CALL IN if I have a temp over 100.4. If you know me, you know this is will be a challenge! I’m what you might call a: tough love type parent. Unless my kids are “dying” we aren’t calling in and we’re not going to the doctor. So this whole having to watch my temp and call in IF it reaches that point is a new way of thinking. Aaron said he’s going to give me gold stars when I do what the doctors tell me I need to do. (Daily temps, doing my physical therapy, etc.) I get enough gold stars I get to go shopping at Maurices! I’d say he runs a pretty good bribe! 😉🤣🙂

Madi turned 9 on Tuesday! We always let the kids pick a place to go out to eat for their birthdays. She chose the Texas Roadhouse. We were able to tie that in before church on Wednesday. She had some birthday money burning a whole in her pocket so we went to the Dollar Tree and got some Caribou Coffee on Tuesday.

Walking is highly encouraged! As long as I’m feeling good I plan to try to get some kind of walking in each day. Kaden was my walking buddy Monday. We went a mile which felt really nice! Looking forward to getting out more and going farther as my body allows! And just for fun I threw in a picture of the back side of my Neulasta pump. You can see the little cannula that stays in me until the medicine is released. There is a needle that is stored inside so I need to take to the doctors office to dispose of it (unless I have a sharps container, which I don’t).