Lessons Learned from week one of Chemo

Friday: This was my low point. I had been trying to be too strong and woke up with a blinding headache. I started to cry in the early morning because I couldn’t locate any medicines—no Tylenol, no advil, no nausea drugs. I was dreading the next 8 months of pain and nausea. Dan put his arms around me and wanted to know what he could do. After I found the drugs I needed, I cried myself to sleep.  We both woke up a few hours later and before Dan left for work he said, “You are doing awesome. You are getting hammered by some heavy drugs. You’ve been working hard all your life to prepare for this.” That made me feel better and that I wasn’t just being a baby. I shouldn’t have been such a stoic because it was freaking me out. Lesson learned: keep water and drugs in easy arm’s reach. 

Here are lessons I learned from the first week after chemo: 

• Take your drugs. All of them. Even, dare I say it, the stool softners. Chemo stops you up.
• Find things that give you comfort. One night I slept in my velvet coat because it is so soft.
• Let friends and family help you. You need it.
• Eat only foods that you like. I liked chicken soup and rice. Easy to digest and comforting.
• Drink lots and lots and lots of fluids. My headache probably came from being dehydrated. I hate drinking water, but by Friday, a week after chemo., I discovered I like drinking lemonade and began to down big glasses of that.