August 31, 2010 - New Side Effects

Up until now, after only one chemo treatment, we thought we had this thing figured out (well, not really, but …).  Having only had a day and a half of shin splints and fatigue, then full energy and appetite, I kind of thought I’d pretty much remain symptom free until the next treatment.  Then last night I got a little surprise.

Yesterday had been another good day.  I had some good orders and got a lot done at the shop, came home to a crockpot pot roast for dinner, and watched the news as usual.  Al went out in the heat to mow the lawn and, after cleaning up the kitchen, I lay down to read Dragon Tattoo upstairs on the bed.  After a few pages, a kind of heaviness settled over me, and I folded up the book and lay my head down to “rest my eyes.”  When I heard Al come back into the house, I really had no intention of moving.  I felt like I could just go down for the night at 8:00 PM.  But he talked me into a recorded episode of Rubicon, after which we decided to retire.

I believe I fell asleep right away, but around midnight I woke up to some pretty intense achiness in my lower back.  It reminded me of the tension I get in my lower back when I’ve been reading lying on my stomach propped up by my elbows (which is how I was reading 5 hours previously), and then turn over to lie on my back.  (I usually have to curl up in a ball for a few minutes to relieve the ache that causes my lower back.)  That’s kind of how it felt, but more intense. 

I got up to use the restroom, and when I returned to bed, I realized that the pain was both in my lower back and in my sternum, and it seemed to pulse with my heartbeat.  I tried to change positions and do some distracted breathing (you learn a lot of techniques that carry into other areas of life when you go through childbirth), but nothing seemed to alter the pain.  I knew the new ibuprofen we just bought was in a bag at the shop, and the Tylenol was downstairs – further than I wanted to go.

Finally, at 12:30 I got up to take a couple of the old (expired) ibuprofen that was in the master bathroom cabinet (I know it should have been thrown out years ago, but I hate to waste).  I didn’t know if it would work or not, but I must have fallen back to sleep, because I recall waking up briefly at 1:30 AM and realizing my back no longer hurt.  And it didn’t hurt since – until a few minutes ago.  After I’ve posted this, I’ll be taking one of those NEW ibuprofen.

A couple other things I’ve noticed recently, to which I don’t know what else to attribute them:

• I have a couple of small sores in the corners of my mouth, which I first noticed on Sunday afternoon, so that if I open my mouth too wide they split and hurt a little.
• My ankles, which used to click when I walked upstairs, now positively rattle like a sack of small bones.  I sometimes wonder if they’re even still attached to each other.
• I've been having very lucid dreams lately, such that when I have to get up in the middle of the night, I seem to float right back into them when I go back to sleep, and I remember them for quite some time after I wake up in the morning.  This is very strange for someone who would otherwise swear that I HAVE NO DREAMS.  

Well that’s where we are today.  Life is so interesting – just when you start getting complacent, you get something else to work on.