Chemo round one, day six: chemo kicked my ass

For the first few days after my first chemo dose, I tried to just keep busy doing stuff with my dad. Then I crumbled into a heap.

But first! Dad and I hit happy hour at Bombay Peggy’s on chemo day 3. I had just one beer. Then we walked to Gertie’s and met Jeff for dinner. I wasn’t about to drink any more but I ate a small dinner, which I couldn’t really taste any more. Then Dad and I walked to KIAC and watched a couple hours of local film submissions to our annual film festival with Dad’s cousin Veronica. One of her films was shown too!

By the time I got home, the bone pain in my legs and feet was getting really really bad. But being still chemo constipated (AHH!) I didn’t want to dip into my Tylenol 3’s left over from surgery, so I took just extra strength Advil and hoped for the best, but I was up most of the night.

On day 4 I was up early and watched the live stream of my work team in Montreal, where I should be for our annual VIP Grand Meetup. I’ve been feeling so distant from work, it was nice to feel reengaged for a couple of hours.

By lunch, I went with Dad to our Saturday Farmer’s Market. I felt better moving around and walking. Then we watched the Discovery Day parade (it’s a long weekend here with the celebration of the discovery of gold here in 1896).

Then we stayed to watch the opening of the mysterious old safe found under a construction site in town a couple weeks back. It was a big event! Everyone had an idea of what was in the old safe, from a big stash of gold, to valuable maps, to even Jimmy Hoffa!

Our Premier helped smash the door in on the safe and found a bunch of old gold recovery equipment in it. A prospector took some of it down to the river and panned out a bit of a gold from the debris left in the refining equipment!

More coverage:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/mysterious-safe-dawson-city-yukon-gold-1.4791024

Afterwards, Dad got our neighbour to fix a big stone smash in his windshield.

Then, since the sky was finally showing a bit of sun, Dad and I headed up on the Top of the World Highway to look for some caribou.

And we found none! Not even really any fall colours yet. A few dried blueberries. My legs were hurting bad so I didn’t get out much (my hair hasn’t fallen out, but feels like straw already). My eyes can’t see so well, like they are exhausted, or if I don’t have glasses on. But I least I had these beautiful gold beads I caught from a float in the parade!  We stopped at a BBQ at a friend’s house on the way back home, and then I just had to go rest. My legs were so bad. Bone pain is no joke. I swear my bones were cramping. My legs were randomly twitching and shaking. Once I tried to stand and my legs crumbled.

By 2am I caved and hit the Tylenol 3’s with codeine. The pain was 12 out 10 on a pain scale. I was going out of my mind. That helped me sleep for a few hours.

And since then, now two days later, I’ve mostly just slept. I’m so incredibly exhausted. Poo is just slowly starting to emerge, now days and days later, just as I was getting geared up to shuffle over to the hospital for help.

Last night I had a shower and was so weak and hot after I thought I was going to pass out. I sat on the toilet and woke up dreaming, leaning against the wall. What the hell!?!

I can’t taste much anymore. Even water tastes horrible. I’m still eating, but more snacks all day rather than actual meals.

HAHA to tough Lisa who thought she’d be able to get back to work during chemo. I can barely stay awake. Yesterday I couldn’t even watch tv I was so exhausted, I had to just crumble in bed while Jeff and Dad went to get another load of firewood for the winter.

So excited to do this five more times. HA!