Side effects

Saturday 12th January

Most people know the side effect of losing your hair during chemotherapy, although this actually doesn't happen to everyone. I am rapidly learning that there are so many different types of chemo, each one tailored to your own condition, and even for the same cancer the treatment can be different.

Even today we bumped into a girl that Mandy knows whilst in Tesco petrol station. Turns out that only a month before I was diagnosed, her husband found the same thing. He too had an op to remove the offending article and is just about to start his chemo. He is having one blast just as a make sure, but it brings it back as to how many people this effects. She is also pregnant which adds it's own complications, she is not allowed any contact with him for 2 days when he has the chemo. Basically you spend the few days after treatment expelling the drug crap from every pore and it is toxic stuff.

One of the current not so severe side effects is my change in taste. I think I have mentioned before that water now tastes revolting. To me it tastes full of soap, even swilling my mouth out after cleaning my teeth is horrible. So I now have to only drink squash which I haven't drunk for years, or lucozade or anything cold with some flavour in it. I also can't face tea, except to use it to dunk biscuits in.

In terms of food I seem to have changed from a sweet tooth to a savoury craving person. Before I was always a chocolate or cake muncher ( too often to be fair ), but I had chocolate today for the first time since chemo and although it tasted OK it did nothing for me. We bought crisps in Tesco's instead, Mandy is in a panic as she is a savoury/crisp person and is worried she will put on weight if she joins in every time I snack!

For cooked food again it is savoury. The only 2 things I have really enjoyed in the last week are the spaghetti meatballs we had tonight and the fishfinger mishmash we had ( fishfingers cooked with mushrooms, onions and a tin of tomatoes served with rice, excellent ). Always did enjoy these but now they seem even better, maybe because I am still trying to catch up on missed food.

Unfortunately you also become very susceptible to mouth ulcers and cold sores. Mouth wash and having to use a soft toothbrush has so far avoided the ulcers, but the cold sores have arrived. At times it feels like one thing after another.

Off to find the crisps now.

Cheers

Tim