Monday, March 23, 2009

Post chemo nausea

The past week has been a tough one. I have not been so nauseous in months and the headache was just unbelievable. Last Monday I left work a bit earlier due to feeling really bad. I had an afternoon nap and a tiny bit of dinner. I had also been having a huge pain in the right jaw which by Monday evening has developed into an acute pain with my jaw pulling (pushing) toward the left misaligning my bottom jaw by about 2-3 centimeters. My tongue was numb and my mouth completely skew. By 8pm I was ready to go to emergency rooms at the hospital and we were all really worried that I had had a stroke. The hospital staff was really great and I was assisted promptly in the ER. I had brought all my medication with me so the Doc could see what I had been taking for the nausea. She recognized with cause of my distress immediately…. I was suffering from side effects of my one nausea medication! Thank God this was the cause of my anguish!! A needle was inserted into my veins and some antidote was administered (in my distressed state I did not even ask what the medication was but presume it was cortisone). And guess what, the side effects of the antidote also affect me…. I had the biggest rush I had ever experienced! Everything was zooming around me and I was being really loving to Ian - I don’t think he has ever seen me so placid, grateful and caring….. I remained in hospital for about 2 hours waiting for the majority of the side effects to wear off and then stumbled back to our car – I just could not control my feet! Came home and went to bed only to find that I was on such a high that sleep eluded me – my sleeping tablet and a glass of milk with black pepper did nothing. Tuesday was more of the nausea, headache and fatigue…. All of which finally settled on Sunday. It is almost as though my body is saying it has had enough of all the medication!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Alida,I admire you so for being such a strong person. I'm so sorry that you are having to endure such pain. My prayer for you is that you remain positive and that all this pain will be part of your past soon. Keep the faith , you are in my prayers daily.
LAM

Geertje said...

Dear Alida,

It makes me feel so sorry to read about your suffering. Especially the last sentence... The longer your blog breaks are the bigger my sorrows grow.

I do hope the doctors can help you to get the side effects under control. And I pray for wisdom for all decisions that you might take into consideration.

Do think of you.

Love,
Geertje

Adi said...

Hi Alida. I see today is the start of your 7th round of Patupilone. I pray for much strength to you today and the coming weeks. I remember you from many years ago in my Safmarine days - you're so strong :) and I think where your body may get tired, your mind and your spirit would keep it going.

Adeleida

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