The Daze After

It was the day after my first treatment. I woke up in the morning trying to evaluate how I was feeling. At first, it wasn’t too bad and I started thinking everything was good. I took some of the nausea medicine then I took a shower. I wasn't  sold on the nausea medicine, it made me feel even more nauseous. Now that I was fully awake, I could evaluate myself a little better. Then it hit me hard, it was the feeling of having been run over by an 18 Wheeler Mac Truck. I felt totally wasted and I had some anxiety, a side effect from the steroids. plus I wanted to vomit. I got dressed anyway, I made a light breakfast and went into the office to work…life goes on.

It was difficult to concentrate at work and people were asking me how I was doing. I managed to work most of the day. I got the important things squared away and organized my desk and my remaining tasks. Then I left early, it was around 1 P.M. in the afternoon. I drove home, went inside and lay down on the couch. I figured I was going to start having to work an abbreviated schedule, atleast until the side effects wore off. It was only the first day after treatment. I was starting to get heartburn so I propped my self up a bit to alleviate the pain. After some time I had to get up and I chewed some Tums, they helped a little bit. I rested for the remainder of the day suffering with heartburn. I chewed some more Tums  a few more times, then I went to bed.

The next day came and I was still feeling like I had been run over by a truck.  I went into the office and worked until lunchtime. I left and drove to the health food store. I bought some supplements and some vegetables. I also picked up all the health magazines. Then I drove to a department store and bought a Juicer. I decided I wanted to give my body as much nourishment as possible. My new goal was to strengthen my immune system. I drove home and went inside. I was tired so I sat down. I got one of the health food magazines and started to look through it.  After reading for a while, I got up and put up the vegetables, supplements and the Juicer. I made a little food, ate and then lied down. That was my day.

It was the third day after my treatment and now a new problem developed. I had not (cover your ears) had a bowel movement for three days. Now my lower intestines were starting to cramp and became painful. The Dr. didn’t tell me anything about the side effects of heartburn or the constipation. Both became very difficult to deal with. I went to the pharmacy and bought some over the counter medicines for both of these side effects. There are couple more side effects I will discuss next time as they took a while to develop.

In four more days, I was scheduled to go back to my oncologist’s office to have my blood levels checked. In the mean time, I was just hoping I could go to the bathroom. Let me tell you, feeling like I had been run over  by a school bus, the nausea, the heartburn pain and the constipation, were no fun.

But life goes on............