Side Effect Roulette

It has been a while since my last post. As you know, I’m still working full time and while my job tends to be busy pretty much any time of year, September is particularly hectic. And, since I’m still more or less in denial mode when it comes to my condition, I figured I could push myself to work similar hours to what I put in pre-diagnosis. That meant that by the time I got home, I didn’t have much left in the way of blog-post-writing-energy.

That all came to a screeching halt on September 17, which happened to be both the day of my third treatment and the day of one of the more important meetings of my career. Having to go straight from a meeting with my oncologist to a meeting with Presidents and Vice-Presidents of various universities and research organizations was a little stressful to say the least. To make things even more fun, I went into my appointment thinking it was going to be round 3 of the treatment I’ve been on since July only to find out that, surprise, I was starting a form of chemo that day! As someone who likes to have a plan and know what to expect, this was yet another reminder that between me and cancer, I am not the one in control.

In addition to my brain having to adjust to the next phase of treatment being moved up (the original plan was for me to start this phase in mid-October), my body was (is?) not quite sure what to make of it either. It has been going through what I like to refer to as side effect roulette. In the almost 2 weeks that I have been on these new drugs, I have been cycling through just about every side effect on the warning label. It’s almost as if my body is trying them all on for size and hasn’t quite decided which ones to stick with. Nausea? Check! Fatigue? Double check! Muscle, bone and joint pain? Check, check, and check! Headaches, yup. Hot flashes, you betcha. Trouble sleeping? How does a full week of severe insomnia sound?! I’ll spare you the details on some of the others. It’s also supposed to mess with my white blood cell count and increase my risk of infection so there’s that to look forward to as well!

Fortunately some, like nausea and headaches, have come and gone (for now) and I’ve got other medications to help with the insomnia and the muscle and joint pain (yes, I feel like a walking pharmacy!). I still haven’t managed to crack the fatigue thing but at least I’m sleeping again and there’s always coffee!

Needless to say, I’ve let a few things slide in recent weeks, like gardening! I left it to Mother Nature to keep things watered and figured my flowers and veggies would have to fend for themselves against the weeds. My beans and peas weren’t very pleased with the neglect but apparently my zucchini enjoyed the independence as you can see from the photo below! Sadly, this particular specimen was stolen before I had the chance to figure out what to do with it.

Those of you in Calgary know that zucchini season is now officially over so I can now neglect my garden without any guilt. I’m also finding ways to work around my side effects, which means I’m back to putting in longer hours at work. Or which means (according to my counsellor) that I’m neglecting myself. So far, one of my side effects has not been improved work life balance, so I guess I still have something to work on.