Side-Effects
So, I’ve actually had a few side-effects this past week.
There’s been two, really, since I figure being totally exhausted just sort of comes with being slowly poisoned. That is, after all, what the chemotherapy does to me. The first side-effect is from that self-same chemo. Namely, my hair started falling out Thursday night. Slowly at first, but it picked up speed pretty quickly.
Friday, I had small clumps in my hand after washing my hair. Saturday and Sunday, though, I had a veritable toupee in the bottom of the shower. This morning was almost as bad. So far, it’s only the hair on my head that’s falling out. I still have my beard and eyebrows. So far. Since this is all rather new, those may yet go, too. And, thankfully, the rest of my hair is holding on, too. Not that I was a particularly hairy guy or anything, but, well, I’ve been told that it tends to itch in certain other areas when it grows back.
Oh, and I suppose that’s the “up side” to this side-effect: my hair will eventually grow back. In fact, I’m told that sometimes it grows back darker than before, so maybe I’ll have a little grey reduction and look younger than I did before! Hey, that’d be okay!
The other side-effect is less fun, but also more temporary. In this case, it’s a side-effect of the treatments meant to boost my white and red blood counts. I have to give myself subcutaneous injections of Neupagen every day for ten days. Well, actually, I only have three left, but it was for a total of ten days. And, yes, I have to admit, the idea of sticking myself with a needle freaked me out at first, but, honestly, it’s amazing what you can get used to doing.
In any case, the nasty, little side-effect of these injections is bone pain. Now, it was described to me as “mild bone pain”, but when this kicked in late Thursday night, it was anything but mild. In fact, I would have rated this right up there with kidney stones. Without any exageration at all, it felt like my joints were trying to twist themselves in the opposite direction of the way they were designed to bend. Amazingly enough, the doctor on-call told me to take Tylenol until I could get the other prescription filled and that took enough of the pain away that I could actually sleep. Now, of course, I have my pain meds and I’m a little “spinny”.
So far, no one at work has noticed.
