Cycle 4, Day 6 Summary

Those of you who are reading the blog closely -- and if that's you, shoot me an email and I'll try to direct you to some far more entertaining reading -- may notice that this is the first time I've had a Day 6 summary on a chemo cycle. This is because the side effects were basically gone by Day 6 in each of the previous cycles.

But while Cycle 4 has been less intense than any of the previous cycles (with the possible exception of the terrible shock to my fingertips that occurred when I stupidly picked up a glass of ice water at lunch to move it out of my way), the side effects have lasted significantly longer than with the previous cycles. 

If prior patterns held, by today I would've expected to be past the fatigue, past the nausea and gastro-intestinal distress, past the jaw pain and rapidly accelerating toward a return to tolerating iced beverages. This time, not so much.

Instead, I'm still exhausted, still feel like crap, still have a taste in my mouth like the Tin Man crawled in there to die, and wouldn't touch a drink with ice in it if you paid me. 

After six days, I am so ready for Cycle 4 to be done -- and starting to worry that as the cycles pile up I may reach the point where I don't actually recover before the next round starts. What fun that would be.