I regularly deal with brain fog from the daily chemo pill I take, leaving me hazy and forgetful. Fortunately it’s only about one week out of the month where it incapacitates me.
It’s not a side effect I expected. It’s listed in the fine print, but who takes the time to read ALL the prescribing information on their medications.
Other side effects I didn’t expect from cancer treatment include receding gums, brittle teeth, itchy skin, peripheral neuropathy in my fingers and toes, and permanently altered tastebuds. I get morning nausea. My hair hurts. I ignore most of it and it recedes to the background of my awareness.
I have to be careful with exercise. My muscles don’t heal like they used to and my bones are brittle. I won’t be skiing or running 10k’s in the near future. I probably won’t be thru hiking the AT or PCT. And that’s the part that sucks. I’m used to working out daily – and the last three years have been challenging. I’ve been in treatment or recovering from surgery most of that time.
There are times it’s just depressing, but then I compare it to working constant mandatory overtime at my former job stuck inside prison walls (literally). And I am thankful, so very thankful that metastatic breast cancer freed me from that daily nightmare.
So, here I am, my body not cooperating with what I want to do and half zoned from the necessary medications. It’s not what I expected for my fifth decade, but I’m still here. I shall ‘adapt and overcome’ as we used to say in the Army. And I’ll be reading those prescription inserts for any new meds I’m prescribed.
MercyJ Writes 