Monday, April 18, 2011

The Fatigue Monster

Although the effects of chemotherapy vary for everyone, I am now going through what is often considered the hardest few days post-infusion.

I have no fever, vomiting, nausea, convulsions, significant pain, or any of the other horrible side effects you often hear of related to chemotherapy. For this I feel fortunate. I do have fatigue. It is the type of fatigue that I have never experienced before and it is not fun. Mornings seem worse. The thought of getting out of bed to make breakfast seems like too much work and once I do I go back to bed and rest again. I am always disappointed that rest does not really make me feel any better. By early afternoon, I seem to have mustered up enough energy to do a few things around the house and go for a bike ride. Today it was just an hour on the trainer. After my ride I thought I would just sit and relax for a few minutes. An hour later I was still sitting there staring at the wall. I am incredibly bored but lack the motivation to do anything fun, especially when it is raining. As for food, there is no point in eating yummy food, because nothing really tastes good. My go to has been toast with peanut butter and agave nectar. I think I had 4 pieces today.

On a positive note, I seem to feel better in the afternoon/evening and that is about right now. My puppy is patiently waiting for a walk, and since the rain has stopped for the first time today, I think we will go.

and now I feel bad for writing how tired I feel because right now I feel okay. Certainly not myself, but okay. Mornings are rough though.


2 comments:

  1. Just got caught up on your blog! So glad you are writing about this experience. I'm proud of you! Thinking of you over in California! :)

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  2. Ah bummer, I was hoping you would skip that part. :( An hour on the trainer is great progress though!

    Food with garlic tends to taste normal for me when my taste buds are ick (so most Italian dishes, someone told me ginger - which I haven't really tested, and food flavored with lemon). Mexican food has also tended to come out pretty good. The healthy alternative to the purple G2 that I drink too much of, is to flavor your water with a little lemon juice.

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