5 Days and Counting

Today’s vampire visit marks the end of cycle 2.  What have I learned about chemo so far?  Well, I now know that the chemo removes me from the land of the living for 5 days.  After that, there are a further few days when I am half-zombie, half-ancient crone who can hardly stand up straight, and then life improves somewhat.  In the past 6 days I have felt pretty good, almost like my usual self as was.  Still really tired most of the time but able to do “stuff” like going out for morning coffee with Mikael, and chatting with the boys, preparing meals, shopping, etc.  Even doing the most mundane things seems an achievement but I am so thankful to be able to move around and do them without feeling sick.

The nausea is by far the worst of the side effects for me, or at least is has been for the two cycles I have completed.  Think of feeling travel sick, and the car isn’t going to stop moving for the next 5 days/nights and you will get some idea about how bad the nausea is.  To be completely honest yesterday and today I have been filled with nervous anxiety because I now know what I face.  5 days is a long time when doing anything, including reading which you usually can’t do enough of, makes you feel sicker than you already feel.  On the plus side, I know this will pass, I just have to count down the days and know that after day 3, things will start to turn around slowly.

Knowing that I will be out of it for 5 days means that I can now somewhat plan ahead.  This is a good thing.  It means I can tell people, make sure you have what you need from me by Tuesday because after that, you will wait at least a week until I catch up with life again.  This is especially important this week because it’s Easter, and there are things that need done as I won’t be able to participate in our Easter celebrations this year.  I will be one pretty miserable bunny over the weekend because Easter is my favourite holiday here in Sweden.  All the family gather at Mikael’s parents on Easter Saturday.   We chatter, paint our eggs and eat a lovely supper prepared by Mikael’s mamma.  The egg painting tradition is legend in the family now.  At one time the grown-ups painted, but mainly it was about the kids.  Now the kids are all teenagers and there is a real feeling of tightly fought competition as everyone hopes their egg will garner enough votes to be named that year’s winner.  This is a family of illustrators/artists so yep, it can be competitive.  Mainly though, it’s just good family fun and tradition  and I am really sad to be missing from the table this year (not that I have any artistic capability).   Still, I have to be thankful that I am still here, and once I get through the 5 days I will be reunited with the family and able eat my chocolate eggs! ?   AND I bought a huge pillow which will allow me to sit upright and snooze in comfort this time so that’s going to a definite blessing this time.

So that’s how it is folks.  My eggs are sorted and I think I have done everything I need to do so that I can step back into the shadows for the time it takes to recover from the worst of the cycle 3 chemo side effects without feeling guilty about not doing something I should have done.  All that remains is for me to wish you all a wonderful Easter weekend.  Happy Easter everyone.  See you all on the flip side.