Well not only did I start chemo in April, but that same week I went back to work after 4 months! I think I had the most tumultuous maternity leave ever! I couldn't stand being home any longer. Now of course I am setting myself up for sounding like the worst mom ever, but I was ready to go back to work. I just don't have it in me to be a stay at home mom, what's the point of becoming a doctor if you are going to be a stay at home mom after just a few years, mommy has loans to pay off! Ironically enough, I would probably make more money if I stayed home on disability, but I really wanted to get back to my patients and having a reason to get dressed and go out of the house everyday.
So I went back to work and started chemo the same week. On the day of chemo, I had a little sore throat and we convinced ourselves that it was allergies cause I felt fine. Well...we were wrong, dead wrong. I had the worst cold I have had in years, and of course I became horrifically neutropenic (low white blood cell counts) which meant I had no immune system to fight anything. So my oncologist sent me home from work...I had barely started!
Needless to say, it took forever to get over this cold and I coughed for over a month later. It is difficult to tell what symptoms I had from the chemo because I was so sick with a cold, but the nausea was minimal and I didn't throw up so I considered that a success. The side effect that is probably the most bothersome for me is the fatigue and the neutropenia (because I am on house arrest for 3 days while my blood counts are low).
Oh yeah, I also started losing my hair about 2 weeks after my first chemo. First, I tried a short faux hawk hairstyle, but it was coming out fast and furious so Matt shaved my head. Lucky for me, Natalie Portman from V for Vendetta is my husband's celebrity crush, so he likes bald chicks! Of course, I had my wigs ready to go and they are fabulous! I forgot to mention that I took a one day hiatus with Matt to Los Angeles to buy wigs during this journey, where else do you get the best wigs than in hollywood! Losing my hair has not been the worst part of chemo so far, it really hasn't bothered me as much as I thought it would, maybe its because my wigs look better than my real hair did!
No comments:
Post a Comment