Ok, so I think I left off with Friday night and that I felt fine aside from feeling a little tipsy. I still went to bed early (for a Friday night) figuring I should get as much rest as I can.
The next morning, I got up, took a shower, and knew it was time to cut my hair. This was a bittersweet moment for me. I've been letting my hair grow for about 2 years in preparation for our wedding this past November. But...it was time. I put my hair in a ponytail, got my best craft scissors, and made sure the video camera was ready to go. Adam cut my hair for me and Ariel recorded the whole thing. It is so weird how light my head felt after all that. In all, we cut off 15 inches of hair! And my hair still goes to my shoulders and I can still put it in a ponytail.
Ariel had to leave pretty soon after and Adam was ecstatic for our l-a-z-y weekend ahead. We spent the rest of the day pretty much on the couch, just making sure to take it easy. It was the perfect movie weekend. I felt pretty good that day. Just a small headache that motrin took care of and some mild indigestion. Otherwise....that was it. If there was one thing I have learned in preparation of chemo, it was how important it is to stay hydrated. I drank more water/juice that weekend than I ever have and I'd like to think that it helped. I also read that the chemo actually does it's job in 4-8 hours after getting it. From there it's critical you flush your system to get the toxin out of your body, hence the importance of staying hydrated.
Later that night, Adam gave me the Neulasta shot, pretty painless. Again, I went to bed fairly early knowing that for most people, day 3-4 is the worst of the chemo so I didn't know what to expect for Sunday. I woke up Sunday and I knew it was kicking in. I was achy in my muscles. It was weird though because it was only from the top of my neck down to the last rib and everything in between. I took some motrin and that seemed to help a little, but not really. I stayed on the couch all day and it seemed ridiculous with all the medication I was taking. Once the motrin wore off we decided to try the oxycodone but that too didn't seem to help. So I just laid on the couch the rest of the day trying not to move too much. Thankfully, the medication was good and helped me sleep.
Monday came and still the muscle pain. In some ways it was the same in that the pain was still there but in other ways it was better in that it was no longer concentrated in my upper body but had spread all throughout my body, just not as intense. I emailed my nurse, Kelly, to see if there was some other pain medication they could recommend for the side effects and come to find out I wasn't taking enough pain medicine. I took the right dose this time and boy did that make all the difference. I was able to take it easy the rest of the day feeling tired but otherwise okay.
I figured it would be best to plan to stay home Tuesday in case the body pain was still there. I woke up Tuesday morning with the pain gone. I felt great actually. Adam was with me and we figured we would just extend the lazy weekend 1 more day. I got up to work from home and even cleaned the kitchen. But after that....whoa....I felt the fatigue. It was weird....something that I normally could do with little effort took soooo much out of me. This is what they meant by the fatigue. So, I took it easy that day by just slowing down...taking longer than I normally would to do everyday things.
I decided it was time to go back to work the next day. I was able to work the rest of the week but I definitely felt the fatigue. I would have to take breaks but so long as I moved slow, I was okay. Each day I felt stronger and stronger and by Friday, I felt pretty much back to 100%.
Sadly, it's only 5 more days until the next round. I've got mixed emotions about it. I'm excited because come Friday night, this means I'll be half-way done with the "bad chemo". But, at the same time, I know what's coming. While it wasn't too bad and I'm extremely thankful for that, it definitely wasn't fun. So...I guess I'll just enjoy the good days I have coming knowing that next weekend will be another l-a-z-y movie weekend.
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