I now have a really sore throat and an annoying cough plus a runny nose. This is probably an ordinary cold, but I just feel more worried about it because apparently I'm less likely to be able to fight it. My sore mouth and mouth ulcers are a side effect of chemotherapy. I have been very up and down. In my last blog I had covered the days from the Friday chemo to the next Wednesday, where I said I was feeling thick headed, sickish and low. Thursday Friday Saturday continued in much the same vein, feeling lethargic and uncomfortable and with a sore tummy.
Then on Sunday I was absolutely as right as rain. I had so much energy and my mood had lifted. I was back to pre-treatment, pre-operation energy levels. I was back to the Stephanie I had worried might never re-surface. Mum visited on the Sunday, and we drove into London together and fetched Dad from his boating jaunt with friends. They came back to our house, stayed over and we all had a good time. On the bank holiday Monday, Judy and Yvonne came over and spent the day with their children. We were friends long, long before children, and it was such a lovely day of self-congratulatory, proud parenting, clucking over how marvellous we and our lovely offspring are. I had bags of energy and was so glad to know that the chemo-low had apparently passed.
On Tuesday Rebecca came over and we tackled the garden for the first time this Spring. We trimmed everything and I mowed all the lawns.
On Wednesday Barbara had several investigation appointments at the hospital, so I drove us there and we managed to cheer folk up in all the waiting rooms as we worked our way round the different departments. A really fun, upbeat day with lots of laughs was topped off with a visit to the gym with Jean.
What with feeling rough on Friday, and the bank holiday meaning there was no Monday Seroma Clinic, I hadn't been 'drained' for over a week, and I had a lot of swelling too, which turns out to be lymphoedema in the chest and armpit. This has made me self-conscious and unhappy.
I then started to go downhill again on Wednesday evening and was and have been tired and miserable and ugly ever since. My hair began to fall out yesterday. It comes out if I tug it lightly, at the nape of the neck, but not on top or at the sides. It is not yet appearing in clumps on my pillow in the mornings, or filling my hairbrush with each stroke.
This morning, Friday, I had a first appointment with the Lymphoedema physiotherapist, who saw that my swollen chest was partly seroma, and also some lymphoedema. She has taught me some self massage techniques, given me a compression sleeve, and is going to use some lymphoedema tape (like sticky plaster) on my chest, which will encourage sluggish lymph vessels to drain to nodes that work. She advised me that when I had noticed my arm swelled it was when I had overdone things the day before. I am going to have to remember to get help when I want the lawn mown, and to wear my sleeve for more physical activities... for evermore, apparently. Great.
Seeing the physio meant I had again missed the Seroma Clinic opening hours, but I was too uncomfortable to slope off home. I went down to the cancer centre, found my breast nurse and got my relief.
I am hoping to spend a happy weekend, because I can predict next weekend will be rubbish after next Friday's chemo. I have learned a few things from this first cycle - one of which is to get ahead of the game and take laxatives from 2 days before the chemo, to ward off any chance of constipation, because that was really distressing.
On the plus side - the weather's been quite nice lately.
.jpg)
