That's right... I said "Jersey Shore-esque"

This has been a crazy busy week and I have so much to update you on (i.e. I've been a really lazy blogger). So I'm playing major catch up this morning. 

First, I had my pre-chemo labs and check up with the medical oncologist on Wednesday. Pre-chemo labs are just a quick blood draw to make sure all of my cell counts are braced for the onslaught they (and I) will be receiving the next day. Hemoglobin was a little low, but overall I was good to go. And the check up with Dr. Favret was to talk about symptoms, side effects, and generally how well I'm tolerating treatment. Tolerating being a very fair word. My chief complaints were...

1. Massive amounts of adult acne 
• Likely a side effect of the steroids, which are used to amp up the effects of the anti-nausea drugs... which seem to be working pretty well because, so far, I've had zero vomiting, almost no nausea, and only the very occasional loss of appetite. 
2. Ocular, light-sensitive headaches
• This popped up on day 10 of treatment cycle 1... and reared its ugly head again on days 11, 13, 14, 17, 18, and 20. Pain relievers (both prescribed and OTC) don't really seem to do much for them. Neither does sleep, though I am able to get back to sleep / fall sleep through them. Which is really nice because when you're asleep, it's hard to notice that something hurts. 

For the acne, I was prescribed Minocycline (that's right, another drug for the side-effect, of the side-effects, of the actual drugs.) And for the headaches, I've got Imitrex... which is used to treat migraines... which I've never had before and have never been formally tested for and diagnosed with. So anyone with any experience in this arena, please feel free to chime in.

Another symptom I forgot to mention to the doc (and I'm blaming that on the actual symptom itself) is chemo brain. This can present in a lot of different ways (or not at all) in a lot of different people receiving chemo therapy. What I (and Rob, and Mom) have noticed is that my word-retrieval and pronunciation/articulation pretty much goes to crap for no obvious reason... other than the chemo. Mostly this means I'll know exactly what I'm trying to say, but will be hopelessly groping for a simple word like cortisone or full-sized mattress. Other times, I may smoosh two words together... or suddenly and quite randomly try out a new accent on a word. Like when purse becomes powrse... or something equally Jersey Shore-esque.

So now I've got auto-fill / auto-correct on which to blame any unfortunate (and often hilarious) electronic turn of phrase... and chemo brain to which I can attribute everything else!

Having fun yet? Good, 'cause now we're moving on to Chemo Day 2 and Free Stuff!