Day 18 – My Healing Journey

After my fall from the spa, I had to use a walker for a while until my knee healed.  I also had to get a toilet riser and a frame that goes around the toilet so I could lift myself to a standing position because I could barely bend my knee. I was already very weak from the chemo so moving around the house was a little bit of a challenge and trying to stand long enough to make food was out of the question. 

Once again, my sister came to my rescue. I didn’t have much of an appetite and was losing weight rapidly but she came every day and made sure I at least had some toast and water; those were the only two things that I could tolerate.  Thankfully, the one plus in this whole scenario was that I had not experienced any nausea from the treatment or the pre treatment medication.  One small win for the patient…

When I met with my oncologist, she was surprised at my visit to the ER.  Then she said it was the Hydrocodone coupled with the heat that caused me to pass out.  She recommended that I not use my hot tub until I finished my treatments.  Thinking back, it probably would have made more sense to tell me that before I had the accident, especially since she knew I was taking the Hydrocodone for the shot symptoms.  I would have been armed with information about a potential disaster and I would never have tried to use the spa.  But instead, true to form, all the information I received was AFTER the fact.  This was unfortunately the ongoing scenario throughout my experience.

I asked her at what point do I need to become worried about losing so much weight. She simply laughed and said “Oh don’t you worry about that, it’s coming back.”  I ate a little soup and a lot of toast during my treatments, some scrambled eggs and some rice and chicken but that’s about it, nothing sounded good and everything tasted horrible. Even my cherished morning coffee routine was spoiled because the taste was ruined; it didn’t taste anything remotely close to my beloved coffee.  The chemotherapy had destroyed my taste buds and nothing tasted good.

At this point, my feet had started turning numb and after doing my own research about neuropathy, I found out that sometimes it can be avoided by using special booties with ice packs in them for your feet and hands while having your infusion.  Just another tidbit of information that might have been helpful to have before starting treatments.