Days one through three of my first chemo round were great. Absolutely no problem. I felt maybe even better than normal. I have steroids to thank for that, and they abandoned me Sunday evening. I now have waves of deep bone/tissue/joint pain throughout my whole body that either pass quickly or lock on. There's an electrical quality to the bolts of pain. Sunday we took an extra long walk; Monday I could hardly make it up the stairs.
I worried yesterday that I wasn't experiencing the worst of it and the worst was yet to come, but I'm happy to report that today was better. I'm hoping that I'm now on an improving trajectory until my next infusion on February 22.
The sensation is odd. I'm a marionette, and my joints are a bit loose and hard to control. Had a fun middle-of-the-night panic attack last night, followed by a long respite on the bathroom floor, dissolving Ativan under my tongue and grounding myself on the soothing cool porcelain as Bob put damp washcloths on my neck.
I had a head cold bloom yesterday, my tongue is swollen, and it's hard to get comfortable. Calls (plural) to the oncology nurse triage line confirmed all of this is in the realm of normal. They suggested Claritin (the allergy tablet) and Tylenol for the muscle jolts and Benadryl for the swollen tongue. They encouraged experimenting with medical marijuana. It will apparently take a few days for the Claritin to fully kick in, so I'm bridging with my leftover Norco from my surgery -- because chemo is more uncomfortable than recovering from a double mastectomy.