I often get asked how I feel after chemo, so in order to help people understand I’m going to do a 7 day chemo diary with a synopsis of my physical and emotional status on each day.
Day 1: Chemo day!
Physical activity level: Normal. No exercise. A little sleepy after chemo.
Hunger level: Normal.
Pain/discomforts: None
Emotional status: Anxious to get it over with! Give me my poison and get it over with!
Day 2 Post-Chemo:
Physical activity level: Normal. Usually the steroids give me a boost of energy.
Hunger level: Normal. The anti-nausea meds are working and make me want to eat pretty regularly.
Pain/discomforts: None
Emotional status: Good. Relieved another chemo is down!
Day 3 Post-Chemo:
Physical activity level: Normal, medium.
Hunger level: Normal, but I find that I usually feel “full” faster from all the anti-nausea medicine.
Pain/discomforts: This morning I get my Nulasta shot. I feel pain at the injection site, and slight bone pain and discomfort later in the evening. Occasionally if it gets bad, I take a half a Vicodin prescribed by my oncologist.
Emotional status: Feeling good!
Day 4 Post-Chemo:
Physical activity level: Slowing down. Went to sleep at 9pm.
Hunger level: Low. Stuff tastes bland. I had soup for lunch, a quesadilla for dinner.
Pain/discomforts: Pain is rising! The Nulasta shot usually makes me feel like I’ve been hit by a bus, or ran a marathon. It’s a full-body all over aching. It feels like you’ve had a really hard workout and your bones feel like they’re going to shatter.
Emotional status: Good but feeling drained.
Day 5 Post-Chemo:
Physical activity level: Low. I put on workout clothes but did not actually workout.
Hunger level: Hungry actually. I ate a double cheeseburger and parmesan onion rings for lunch and felt like a fat, happy pig!
Pain/discomforts: Nulastaaaaaa you kill me. Feeling rundown and achy. Slight headache. Also, my eye keeps twitching. WTF is up with that?
Emotional status: Good. Feeling a little useless though. Feeling like a blob with no energy.
Day 6 Post-Chemo:
Physical activity level: Low. Running a slight fever of 100.
Hunger level: Low, but still eating fairly normal.
Pain/discomforts: Major headache. Like clockwork, on day 5-6 after chemo I get blinding headaches and a slight fever. It’s from the over-production of white-blood cells due to Nulasta. My body is producing all these white blood which signals to my body that something must be wrong. My body is like: “There’s an infection somewhere! All these white blood cells! OMG! Signal the fever! Let’s get cookin!” I found this out by going to the emergency room on day 5 after my 2nd chemo and they ran all sorts of tests to see why I had a fever. Nothing was wrong, just Nulasta being a nasty little bitch. Now I basically live on Tylenol every 6 hours during these Nulasta attacks. I wish I didn’t have to get Nulasta, but it helps me bounce back after chemo and also protects my immune system.
Emotional status: Blah.
Day 7 Post-Chemo:
Physical activity level: Good, better!
Hunger level: Good, improving!
Pain/ discomforts: The headaches have subsided but that’s probably due to me popping Tylenol like tic-tacs. (Err, jk. I take them as directed)
Emotional status: GOOD. Actually feeling like I can get shit done today. I might even go to the grocery store. Or Target?! I don’t know! Yaaassss!