Stay Home - Good Call

I opted to work from home today. It was a good call. I did most of my work while laid out flat on my back. Every time I would try to sit up my brain would get sluggish, my head would get hot and my breathing would get shallow. Within minutes I would melt back down. Thank goodness for laptops, eh? Ya - the iMack would have gotten heavy on my tummy after a while.

Even so I got a good long day in. Finished my notes for a free download paper and got the layout for a website done. Got an invoice out for a design project I've been working on for the last month. Got approval for a logo and confirmation for the content of a business card.

Is it just me? What is not clear about this sentence: "Please provide and confirm all the content you would like to have appear on your printed material." Time and time I have to ask repeatedly for the information... finally give up and go hunting for all the information I think they might want, get that confirmed and even then the client will make at least 2 changes after that.
By the hour!! I must charge by the hour!!! Per project sucks. My time is not respected.

Paul's working late tonight. he could be home any time. I made Hamburger Helper with broccoli. It can wait.

My nasal passages are grossing me out. It's not like cold boogers or allergy snot, but I keep producing this disgusting slime. It tastes bad and I'm sick of it. No amount of brushing seems to help. I can't decide wether it's mucus production or the lining of my passages sloughing off.

My head feels clammy but it's dry to the touch and not hot. I took my temperature an hour ago. Normal. No fever.

I hope tomorrow is better.

I Feel Like Kaka

Seriously! I feel gross today. First time ever that I opted to come home from work due to illness. I crawled onto the couch and buried myself in blankets. And there I lay from 2 in the afternoon until Paul came home with fish n' chips for dinner. I managed to sit up long enough to eat that but then had to lay back down again. Completely wiped out!

I finally felt strong enough to sit up around 9:30ish. Just enough time to do an update on the woodcraft website and prepare some logo roughs for the nanny. No point in actually taking some time off.

It bugs me that my head is either too hot or too cold. I'm looking forward to not being bald again... Few more months yet.

Chemo Round 2 - Day 4

Feeling 98% - kind of like a hangover from 3 days back only without the fever and headache... just a few butterflies on the inside. Massive doses of poison will do that. ;-))

I do have limited energy levels and when I try to push it, like doing the laundry, I have to make up for it by curling up on the couch for a couple hours to recoup. Awe, poor me. I have to take a nap now and again. Life could be worse.

Not so afraid of my stomach this time around. Must be wary of putting food on TOP of the nasty steroid pill. Last one I need to take is at dinner tonight. If I don't burry it with food the heartburn is nasty. Even so, my mouth constantly tastes blechky. And why do I keep smelling cat pee?! Am I super sensitive to old messes (which I can't find when I go looking) or is that my insides that smell like ammonia? It's not pleasant. Brush, brush, brush the teeth.

Got lots of computer work done this weekend. Nice to get a few things off the books. (Would be nicer if some of my outstanding clients would get back to me... Duck Dude)

Chemo Round 2 - Day 2

Got through last night with a minimal of effort. Avoiding the big lunch after treatment prevented any illness. Eating a couple bites at a time spread over hours at a time is key. Dinner was "buffet" style. I made ginger / garlic beef strips, boiled brussel sprouts and sauteed red peppers/onion/tomato and served it on side plates with fondu forks. Have a bite, curl up in the fetal position, wait for the rocking to subside, rinse and repeat. Drinking lots of water and ginger ale.

At one point I got up to see something Paul wanted to show me. TOO FAST! Everything went black for an instant and I melted to the floor. Didn't pass out or anything but going with gravity was a wise choice. When you're sitting still you don't realize how weak you really are.

By 11:00 pm the worst was past and I was back up-right and feeling much better.
Today I feel like I have a hangover only no fever or headache, just a bit of tightness and trembling deep inside. Had one egg and two 12 grain toast (one with stem ginger marmalade)

I'm just about bald now. My hair was so easy to pull off with my finger tips I figured the easiest way to clean it up would be with wax strips. I wasn't actually "pulling out" the hair so much as removing hair that wasn't really attached -No roots.
That, and my hair was hurting. It felt like litter wires, that when rubbed against the grain (hats, scarves, pillows...), felt like a bunch of sharp little wires were being pushed back into my head. Ow! I also thought that shaving would just leave a lot of below the surface little wires and I didn't want that. Waxing didn't remove every single hair. I don't mind shaving those few off. Without the dark vs light hair/stubble my streak hardly shows up at all. I always thought that would be more obvious.

I'm hoping I'm not coming down with a cold. I sneezed a lot yesterday and twice today already. No fever. Paul keeps making me take my temperature even though I can tell there's no fever. If anything I'm a little cold today.

My throat and nasal passages have been sticky for a week or so. Is that bacterial gunk or a result of the inside of my mouth sloughing off? I don't know.

Don't think I mentioned my sensitivity to spice skyrocketing. One day I'm putting my normal chili flakes on spicy pasta and the next day I can't stand black pepper on my eggs! I think the fast growing cells being wiped out of my digestive system, including my mouth, has diminished my heat tolerance. I've always gravitated to spicy, savory foods. I thought having to switch to a bland diet would be a real bummer but bland isn't so bland with heightened senses.

I Lost My Cookies

Feeling much better today. Yesterday was a little rocky but if that's as bad as it gets...

I was hungry after the first chemo treatment so I came home and made what I thought was a tame lunch: a grilled cheese on 12 grain with a bowl of Healthy Harvest Roasted Chicken and Noodle soup. Apparently my normal portion size for lunch is too much.

I hadn't been feeling all that ill - maybe a little tired with a tightness in my tummy. Nothing that shouldn't pass with a nap. That sat in my stomach and percolated from about 1:30 until 8:00 when I figured it would be safe to take my anti-nauseant med.

At 8:20 I got up to go to the bathroom. A moment later I was back on the couch and then.... OH OH! There went lunch! After that I felt MUCH better.

Out with the bad, in with the good. I had a couple of ginger ales and another glass of water. By then I figured it was safe to take another anti-nauseant med. They're expensive and I didn't want to risk loosing another.

Dinner was around 11:00: a half cup of frozen yogurt and, a little while later, 1/4 cup of Quick Oats with a dab of butter and a pinch of white sugar. Mush is my comfort food.