Is that the grim reaper!?

Tuesday 27th April and I’m starting my first day of round two and first of three days in a row.

I’ve made myself a packed lunch and have a real craving for salty savoury foods, and I’m fortunate that I am still craving food whilst maintaining a strong appetite.

Els bought me a pack of salt and vinegar Pringles to work my way through during day one of round two. Again day one and day two of round two is all about drinking plenty of water and recording how many times I wee and how much urine passes out, so they can ensure that my kidneys are working correctly.

Everything goes as plan through both days but I am certainly starting to notice a difference in myself. The sickness increases and so does the tiredness. I just feel mildly hungover all the time and I cannot concentrate on anything, which isn’t great as I promised and stick to my promises in that I’ll work everyday that I’m not having chemotherapy. Although this week I was lucky and I took Friday 30th April off as annual leave. A day to relax and join the social media blackout over the weekend.

I struggled that weekend with nausea and tiredness so didn’t manage much in terms of exercise apart from a couple of dog walks and my mum came to visit on the Sunday. She brought lots of savoury treats for me and Ellen to indulge in!

I also noticed that my tastebuds were changing again and I could only taste really strong flavours as my mouth felt like I had a layer of cling film covering it. A hard one to explain!

So water amongst other things did not react well with the ‘cling film mouth’ and made me feel worse, so it was fizzy original lucozade that did the trick along with the salt and vinegar Pringles! All other foods just tasted so plain and I had very much gone right off sweet foods and sweet drinks.

Tuesday 4th May 2021 was session 4 of round two and we decided we would get a maccies to celebrate that we only had one chemotherapy session left of this round and as my tastebuds were changing, I decided to put in my body whatever I could and whatever I fancied.

I worked the rest of the week and it was a good distraction for me, although the tiredness and moments of confusion were really frustrating me.

The weekend ended (9th/10th May) in new symptoms showing up, I had really sore skin around my lips and on my nose. It was was red, blotchy and sore, this damaged my self confidence a lot as I’ve always been someone who really cares about their appearance, so to add this to the loss of hair was a killer for me.

Symptoms aside I still managed two long walks over the weekend with Ellen and that’s what I live for. I love any and all time I get with Ellen and the dog, and if it wasn’t for her this would have been so much harder or I’d go as far as saying unbearable. She really is the glue holding my fragile body and state of mind together and she deserves all the plaudits possible.

New week starts (10th May) knowing that I’ve got one chemo session left in this round and then it’s just one more round to go. I get the next session done and out the way, and I’m back to work the following day for the rest of the week. So one round (5 chemo sessions), 7 injections and 25 tablets left to take, not that anyone is counting!

Over the weekend (15th/16th May) we went to Bourne to visit my mum, drop off presents and flowers for her birthday and then took Arya to Bourne woods, which is one of her favourite places. I’d felt most of the week but was able to get around a lot better on the Sunday thankfully, which meant I could enjoy the walk, even if it was much much slower compared to normal.

The Sunday night finished with a nightmare in which I met a reaper and it was chasing me and I managed to avoid it and it’s scythe. I googled it the next day and in some religions it means I’ve been chosen to be the next reaper…who knows but be nice ha!

I went into the hospital on 17th May 2021 for my next lot of checks to confirm I was okay to move onto round 3 of treatment, that consisted of bloods, scans and a meeting with the Doctor. They gave me the all clear to carry on with treatment and so I was ready to get cracking with round 3!