Post Chemo Round 1

Today is Sunday 10 April.  Our youngest turns 26 soon.  My Dad’s birthday was 15 April and, if he was alive, he would be 114!

Thursday was the lowest day in the sense of feeling low in energy for the first day after completing the first round of chemotherapy.  During that night I worked out why I saturated the bed the night before.  I was too hot.  So, now I am using a cotton blanket over the sheet.  I am hottest around the shoulders and neck.  So, I start the night with no blanket there and a single cover lower down.  During the coolest part of the night, I tend to pull the blanket up to my shoulders and double its thickness around my legs and feet.  This flexibility solves the problem of perspiring.

Friday I awoke feeling much more normal.  During the day, my light morning exercise was pruning a bush that was growing over our side of the fence from the neighbour’s yard.  In the afternoon I brought in Pete’s washing (done by Barbara) and packed away most of his clothes in the wardrobe drawer and made his bed (sheets only).  After a break I vacuumed the downstairs.  The security door was installed at the dining room outside door between 12.30 and 2.00.  I also did some other work (mainly for our Super Fund) on the computer.  I did not have any snoozes during the day and went to bed around 10.00 pm, after watching New Tricks on ABC TV.

Saturday I felt OK but not as good as Friday.  My asthma has been bothering me more and I have increased my asthma medications.  Normally, I take the medication in the morning and at night but I have added one or two extra doses during the day.  Sharynne and Brendon McLeod visited for lunch.  Brendon did a theoretical music exam at the Glebe Library.  Will and Christina dropped in for an hour or so around mid afternoon.  Late afternoon, Barbara and I went for a walk for about half an hour.  Back home I felt a bit wheezy and down on energy.  I decided to eat the rest of the plain potato crisps.  Immediately my energy lifted and the wheeziness disappeared!  On the Thursday afternoon I had some chips and my energy level immediately improved.  I am thinking the salt must be part of what I need and decided to incorporate a small packet of chips in my daily diet.  I went to bed at 9.00 pm which works better for my feeling rested.

So, here I am Sunday feeling pretty good, listening to John Williamson, a very well-regarded Australian country music singer and song writer.  He has a great mixture of serious and funny songs.  I seem to be adopting a daily routine that includes

• getting up around 7.30/8.00 am
• eating one or two eggs (soft boiled, scrambled, fried or omelette) with toast and vegemite (thick – I like the vitamin B and its seems to help my asthma), extras in the eggs such as cheese and mushrooms, two orange juices and cup of tea
• later, eating some cereal adding fruit and raisins
• before lunch eating a small package of potato crisps
•  jelly (Jello) and tinned fruit in the late afternoon – this is a different way of taking liquid as the jelly turns to liquid in your stomach
•  dinner is usually some type of delicious stew that Barbara has made

I did not expect potato crisps to be such a magic potion.  It is certainly an easy way of helping energy and better than taking extra medication for my asthma.  I will keep having a small packet of crisps daily and ask at the hospital during chemo round 2 if they have any idea why they are so helpful for me.

I can taste my food and am deliberately keeping it up, not in big helpings but more, smaller helpings spread over the day.  And the liquid intake is at least two litres per day.  It does get a bit tedious drinking and eating so much but I know from the advice received this will help me.

I have not slept during the day since Friday.  I am hoping that these good days will continue up to chemo round 2 on Monday 18 April.

So, overall, I am comfortable with only a few niggles – seems that the chemo bad effects are being minimised and I am hoping that good effects are being maximised!

I am completing and reviewing this blog entry listening to Kasey Chambers, ‘Barricades & Brickwalls’.  She is another successful Australian country music singer.  Barbara and I, with our neighbours Joy and Graeme, have seen her and her husband and others perform at her brother’s farm in the hinterland of the central coast.