Decision Made

Hi Windsrfn, hope the first one went down well, and that you were well looked after. The next few days are likely to be tiring, once the steroid effects wear off if they gave you steroids, and you may find the nights very long and slow. I found it helpful to realise how uncomfortable the GI tract gets when it is stripped of its lining, and to really consider what I felt like eating and to make it different every day so I did not get put off too many alternatives by them being associated with nausea/upset GI tract. I had really bad heartburn the first round, which was the worst thing and much of why sleep was hard, and I cleared Somac over the counter with my oncologist, and it made the world of difference. Don't put up with any symptom that diminishes your quality of life: there are good ways around most of them, and the sooner you get them sussed with something that works for you from this page, or your oncologist or your oncology nurses, the better you will go.

Don't underestimate the impact the fatigue may have on you, and the many symptoms that are actually fatigue can include headaches, irritation, frustration, grumpiness, feeling incapable of doing anything much and unmotivated, etc.

But my best advice is make sure you walk every day, even if it is just twenty minutes, and you only get once around the block and have to sit down every hundred meters. Walking gives your body the chance to remember it is alive and your heart is beating and your lungs are oxygenating your blood and you will get through. (Sorry but I have become a born-again walker since I started cheme, and walks with my daughter are often the brightest point of the days)

best wishes, you can beat the bugger.