Sunday, April 23, 2006

Side Effects

Here come the side effects. Creeping in, slowing but seriously.

Last night the bone pain started. This is from the Neulasta shot, the $3400 shot to make the bone marrow produce white blood cells. Venita's shoulders, back, ribs, and hips are involved. It's just starting but promising over time to get fairly serious.

Troble swallowing. This is the worst right now. Difficult to eat or drink if things won't go down. Not inappetant; Venita is pretty hungry. Can you imagine not wanting a beer because it hurts too much to drink it? Even toast and ice cream are trouble. One thing that's still going down is the La Creme yogurt. Venita has to have a large glass of water with everything she eats to push it down.

The facial pain has dimished, but temperature swings (chills to hot flashes and back) persist, especially at night. But that might be normal life; it was before BC.

Loss of concentration/lack of energy associated with the various drugs, especially the antidepressants.

V is trying to avoid using the sleeping pills because they knock her out for about 12 hours. However, without them she only gets about 2 hours sleep at a time.

OK, enough whining for now. Welcome to the world of chemotherapy.

1 comment:

{Steve Rapaport} said...

Lots of hugs and love and comfort coming your way from us. Chemo sucks!

You will get better.

Steve