4.26.06, Side Effects: Hair Loss, Weight, Wood

If today had a number I'd go 8. Not bad. To a large extent I do think the hour-to-hour of the experience is based on pain management. A task that is both physically and psychologically unfamiliar. As I come to grips with the reality of it, the need for it, and the approaches to it, it gets better. The Franky Scale ups.

To update you on the chemo process, or rather my whereabouts therein, I'm currently in the first rest week (did I already write on this....? short-term memory loss as side effect....?). After two weeks of pill and IV chemo, I rest until Saturday; then I start up with the pills once more. Next week Tuesday, the 2nd, I get my first weekly infusion of the second mini-round of chemo (three three-week rounds making one complete cycle). During this week of no chemo drugs I do seem to feel better physically, less fatigued in general, some appetite now and then, and I think less by way of night sweats/chills too.

Side effects for me seem to have been pretty mild so far. No hair loss--well, unless you count my chest hair but I lost that during presurgical foreplay with Dr. Hands. Still hasn't grown back in all the way. Otherwise, same as before, all the same places. My weight also seems pretty constant, though I've been working at it diligently since the Flood. In addition to either Met-rx (sp?) and Balance and Trader Joe's protein/nutrition powder drinks, I've been trying Boost a couple or few times a day also. Appetite, or rather lack thereof, and lack of ability to taste or enjoy food have been pretty constant effects. Some dryness of hands, but no hand-food disease-level discomfort. And, knock on wood, no mouth sores of any type. As for wood--is this too personal?--I don't think I suffered much in that dept, nor do I hope anyone else suffered much in that dept. However, during this week of non-chemo days I, or, there is, how shall we say, a certain tingle in the air. Or let's say I feel somewhat more disposed to register the natural effects of Spring. What was it Eliot said about April? (Read his poetry and it's clear, he for sure had problems with wood, but that's more Prufrock than Wasteland.)