Not Dead Yet !: it's all about the timing

Saturday, December 23, 2017

it's all about the timing

Five days of chemo, five days of learning how to minimise side-effects!

Monday: Swallow the chemo tablets... eat breakfast... chunder many times. Okay, that didn't work!

Tuesday: Chemo... take one of the "mild anti-nausea" tablets just before breakfast... chunder just once. Okay, better!

Wednesday: Anti-nausea, chemo... breakfast... feel queasy but no chundering! Okay, so I seem to have sorted that out :-)

I test the sequence on Thursday and Friday -- and it seems to work. Well, I don't chunder, anyway! Here's the sequence:

... Wake up at 4 or 5 am. Take a mild anti-nausea tablet. I'm not sure why doctors and chemists call them "anti-nausea". It's the "anti-vomit" properties that I'm after.

... Then I wait half an hour. The two sets of tablets are meant to be taken half an hour apart. At least, when it's the heavy-duty "anti-nausea" they are meant to be half an hour apart, not sure about this milder tablet. Still, better safe than even more sorry :-)

... Back to bed, back to sleep, till it's time to get up for breakfast.

And that seems to work... My stomach is not entirely comfortable but I can eat without bringing it up again. Success! I test the system by going out for coffee... no worries :-)

Interesting, though: Today is Saturday, no chemo this morning. Yet my stomach is still ... not entirely comfortable. And I am still exhausted, sleeping at the drop of a hat. As though the chemo effect is hanging round for a few days.

I've just re-read a pamphlet... It's radiation (not chemo) which may have delayed side-effects.

I also have a typed sheet for Temozolomide chemo: For chemo, common side-effects are tiredness & fatigue, check but should go away when pill-taking has stopped. Nausea &/or vomiting, usually mild and controllable, days 1 to 5, check. Low blood counts could happen after a couple of weeks, I'll be having yet another blood test before the next chemo cycle.

So I have no good excuse for any remaining side-effects... That's a relief, I feel better already :-)

btw: The typed sheet for chemo side-effects is dated 2005. And was prepared by the doctor who trained DrT. Time for an update! Or -- at least -- time to have it retyped and updated with DrT's name and a more recent date... Just to give me some reassurance of the currency of the information.

Not to worry: no more chemo for a few weeks! My stomach is accepting food, I can sleep when I want to. And it's almost Christmas Day :-) All good !