I have basically been sleeping since last Thursday afternoon when Flor dropped me off at home after the last infusion. I always seem to be hit hardest by the chemo during the first five days so I think it’s good thing to just give in and do what my body is demanding. Which is to rest.
When I was on chemo last summer I always had five awful days when I was laid low with nausea and could barely move from bed. After the first two infusions this time (with new anti-nausea meds) I felt a bit tired the first five days but got by with a nap in the afternoon. Little did I know this was because of the dexametasona, which gave me an energy boost but really made me pay for it when I crashed a few days later. This time with only the anti-nausea meds I don’t have nausea but I also have no energy whatsoever. I’ve managed a short walk each day – and even made it to yoga yesterday! – but the days have been punctuated by no less than three 3-hour naps. And you know what? I just give in. Like I have a choice?
But today is day six and I plan to get up and stay up. Wish me luck!
good luck staying awake – I can never resist when my body resolutely decides that it wants to sleep, and I imagine that yours is being even more adamant!
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Thing is, I’ve never been one for taking siestas. And until this round I’ve kind of been fighting the urge. But now that the five day period is up I’m going to make more effort to carry on like it’s a proper “work day” with maybe an hour-long nap after lunch.
The whole point of having the infusions on a Thursday was to include a weekend in the initial five-day uffff period so I could keep on teaching without losing too many classes during infusion week. Now I just need the classes!
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Cats think you are furniture now, I presume?
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I’m actually a cat magnet. I go into the livingroom, cats go into the livingroom. I go lie down in bed, cats follow. It’s quite cute. Though they also have their own mid-morning siesta on the bed no matter where I am. Weirdos.
Sunny is definitely a lap cat and will not take no for an answer when he gets the urge to hunker down on the Alpha Cat’s ample lap for awhile – even if there is a laptop already there!
Azar tends to treat me like an extra pile of cushions on the bed. He crawls all over me, snuggles in here and there, makes one-pawed “biscuits” and is otherwise adorable.
Boy I love my cats! 🙂
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You’ve got me singing Bob Marley now “Get up, stay up! Stay up for your rights!”
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3 3-hour naps! Wow. No wonder the cats follow you — they’re thinking “Wow, she’s truly one of us now…we can all sleep together!”
Good luck with that whole staying-up concept.
((hugs))
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Well, I actually did it today. Just one one-hour nap this afternoon! Next challenge is to stay up for House. 🙂
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Az,
What is the name of the painting, above. I know it is by one of the Pre-Raphaelites but can’t think of the name fo the painting.
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I found it here…
http://www.illusionsgallery.com/Sleeping-Beauty-BJ.html
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Give in to the sleep. It’s your body telling you that you need to heal and don’t have enough vitality to come back from the chemo and cancer AND stay awake and active. The more you sleep, the faster you heal.
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Yeah, I think you’re right about not trying to stay awake and active, Rain.
This morning I had a check-up appointment at the hospital for the “boob job” I had a couple of months ago (keep forgetting to explain that one) and took the opportunity to visit my friend Becky, who just had a double mastectomy yesterday. Decided to save money and took the bus there and back instead of a taxi – big mistake.
By the time I got home I was practically crawling up the stairs, felt lightheaded and nauseous, and collapsed on the bed feeling just awful. After about an hour I got up and made a sandwich and felt a bit better, but am now going back to bed.
Hope I’ll be okay for my weekly class with Dr A this afternoon. I think I’ll ask him to come here. I usually go to his place, which isn’t far, but I don’t think I could manage the stairs again today.
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I hope you’re feeling recovered from that bus ride! (And that you’ll remember not to push yourself so hard.)
I’m all in favor of sleeping when your body tells you that’s what you need to do. Those naps sound like just what the doctor ordered. Or should have ordered, if no doctors actually wrote prescriptions for naps.
In totally unrelated news, I’ve been accepted to the conference! So I am looking into visiting Spain in September. The conference is in Barcelona on the 15th, and I’m looking into heading to Madrid for a couple of days, and then on to Sevilla. There may possibly be a troupe of my family.
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I just realised today, when I was telling Nog about your Canadian Conspiracy post and also mentioned that you would be coming to Seville in September, that I’d totally forgotten to reply to this wonderful news here.
This is really exciting! 🙂
When you have dates set for Seville we can talk about accommodation … I know of a very nice one-bedroom (with sofa bed) holiday apt near my place that would suit you well, especially with the family.
I didn’t actually recover from that bus ride very well the other day. Had to cancel my class with Dr A because at 5 o’clock I just couldn’t get out of bed. Am still tired today. This is really starting to suck big time.
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Oh, az. I’m sorry the recovery has been so slow. Who’d have thunk that a bus ride would be so hard on you? That’s so frustrating. I hope you continue to get rest when your body tells you to. Is today any better?
As for September, I’m very excited, too. I’ll finally get to sample some of those tapas I keep reading about, which is my primary reason for flying all the way to Spain!
The holiday apartment sounds great. I’m planning to do something like that in Barcelona. When we went to Paris in 2007, we rented an apartment, and it worked out really well.
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