Recovery week needs a name change. Let’s call it ‘marginally less debilitating’ week. I was under the impression that the cessation of chemo tablets would bring a bit of relief if not fully back to normal. To an extent, the side effects have eased. The tingling extremities only happen now if I take something out the fridge or go outside in the wind/rain and sickness is definitely down.
But with the easing of chemo side effects, it has become evident that I’ve still got bowel cancer. The symptoms, rather than side effects, have been pretty rough over the past few days and I’ve seen a return to the kind of exhaustion that saw me asleep in work lunch breaks and approaching the kind of pain/discomfort that made me think I might have appendicitis back in March. We’re not there yet, but once the specialist nurses are back at work tomorrow, they’ll hopefully tell me how worried to be.
In the meantime, I’ve watched a load of cricket and rubbish TV and made it out the house to meet a couple very patient people and cancelled on others who’ve been equally patient. Well – it’s at times like these that I’m glad I did a lot of living over the past couple of months because there’s not much quality of life right now. Perhaps, as they say, a change (to a different kind of feeling rubbish) is as good as a rest.