Today was the ninth round of chemo, out of sixteen total rounds. Seven doses over the next seven weeks, with the final dose on April 24th. I am going to take in a cake and tea or lemonade to the clinic on the day of my last dose for all the nurses and staff that have been taking such great care of me. I've yet to decide what I'd like to write on the cake. "Thanks for all the..." pokes, jabs, sticks, holes? Maybe I should thank them for keeping me pickled for the past few months.
My chemo dose was lowered a bit this week because the numbness/tingling has gotten worse since last week. My toes are in a state of constant tingling and over the weekend, I started waking up with my hands tingling. I take an extra dose of Vitamin B-6 to help combat the numbness/tingling but it hasn't slowed down the numbness/tingling. I worry more about my feet because of the commute I make to work daily. If my feet get to the point where I cannot feel them, I won't be able to drive. Though, if my hands get as bad as my feet, doing my job would be nearly impossible as it involves a lot of computer work.
Joining the side-effect brigade this week is a persistent metallic taste in my mouth. Everything tastes like it has been stored in tin cans before I consumed it... even bottled water. One of the nurses said that a doctor she worked with described it as "tasting like you licked the side of your car." I told that to mom & hubby and they both responded that right now, that would be more salty (we've gotten a lot of snow lately and the roads have been heavily salted). Personally, I think it's more like having a metallic popsicle or a metal mouth than licking the side of a car. I did learn that the best way to lessen the effect of the metallic taste is lemons or lemonade or lemon candy. I may have to experiment and see if lemon bars or lemon cake would work as well. Otherwise, I'll be eating Lemonheads and lemon drops like they are crack.
Otherwise, my fatigue has diminished greatly. The addition of orange juice to my daily routine when I take the extra iron has helped immensely. Last week I think I would have passed for a zombie as I was so tired.
Other news... I received the information for my 25th! class reunion in the mail a couple days ago. It's at the end of July. I went to my tenth class reunion but skipped all the other ones. I will probably go to this one for kicks and grins. By the time of the reunion, I'll be completely done with treatment and I'll have more than a bit of fuzz on the top of my head. Though I'm still trying to figure out where the last 25 years went.
Love & Hugs
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