Sunday 30th August 2009

Chemo Cycle 3 Day 13

Coming to the end of the second week of this cycle, and everything is pretty much as usual to be honest.

Although I am having a maintenance dose of the steroids to keep me going, I've still had the midweek slump that I've had in previous cycles. I've been really short of energy - even moreso than usual - and I've been feeling a bit down. Not depressed or anything serious, just lethargic and not motivated by anything at all really. I'm expecting to start to move out of this phase over the next few days though, which will be nice.

Good news is that I've not had any nausea. The last time I had any symptoms was the "gap" week I had between this cycle and the last, so it really does seem as though the chemo drugs prevent nausea rather than causing it which is strange.

Main problem over the last week has been diarrhoea though. Things had calmed down very well and were almost back to normal a week or so ago - I'd even pretty much stopped taking the Loperimide (immodium) drug that I've been taking on and off since the surgery.

However, things have got out of balance again and I've had a lot of stomach cramps and quite a few bouts to deal with - sometimes in the middle of the night which is no fun and ruins the rest I need from my sleep. I can counter it by taking more Loperimide, but its a fine balancing act between dealing with diarrhoea and dealing with being bunged up for days as the alternative - neither is good. Unfortunately this is now part of my life. The surgery necessarily cut a nerve (the Vagus nerve I think) which regulates the process in a normal person, so I'll never be the same again, but its just a case of trying to get the balance as good as possible.

Unfortunately the side effects are a loss of fluids which I can do without, and even more drain on my energy, so I've had a couple of real washout days over the last week.

It's going to be interesting to see how I feel once the fourth chemo cycle is finished. My oncologist expected me to have a surge in energy in my extra rest week after the last cycle and was surprised to hear that I noticed no difference. I hope given a few weeks that I can get some more energy back, but I'm not sure its to do with the chemo at all, more the lack of nutrition from the food I am able to consume which isn't likely to change much going forward. Still we'll see. I have some plans for October/November, so I'm hoping I will have more energy than I have now, not less.

Anyway, that's a lot of words for very little to say, so I'll sign off for now. Hopefully a little more lively next week as we go into recovery week!

Cheers,

C.