CommaWitch's Journey:

I was anemic before I started treatment. The chemo just exacerbated the problem. I could have had shots of Procrit, but I didn't like the side effects and I was close enough to the end of my traditional chemo treatments that my oncologist just watched my counts and we agreed to forego the shot.

This is real. It has also been one of the most frustrating parts of treatment for me. I've always considered myself pretty articulate and to not be able to complete a sentence or forget a word I need to finish a sentence is so frustrating I want to scream.

I received my treatments on Thursday. By Saturday night I was asleep and I slept most of the time until Tuesday. Three days was all I'd allow myself and then I was up, whether I was still exhausted or not.

I has lymph nodes removed from my left arm. Luckily, I'm a righty, but I still wear my sleeve and gauntlet if I'm working out or if I know my left arm is going to be hanging by my side for a good portion of the day.

Just like they said, my hair began falling out within two weeks of my first treatment. I had hair down to my bottom, so we cut it and donated it, before treatment started. Once my hair started falling out, we let our 4 year old son shave my head. Making him part of the process made the transition less shocking for all of us. Mine's growing back now. It's darker and much curlier, but chemo doesn't cure gray hair. =)

My legs swelled from my hips to my toes after each chemo treatment and basically stayed that way for a week to the whole time after chemo. I took a medication, whose name I can't recall now, to help with the swelling, but the side effects sucked, so I just dealt with the swelling.

I ate with plastic utensils. Metal utensils were all I could taste when I used them. For me, the taste of things got more intense. If something was mildly spicy, it was very spicy to me.

*sigh* Between the steroids and not feeling well enough or having enough energy, I sat around a lot. I gained nearly 30 pounds during treatment.

At my age, 45 at diagnosis, I had not yet entered menopause. They did tell me that chemo would throw me into menopause, but almost a year later, I don't seem to have any of the side effects other than no period. I did however lose all sexual desire. I contacted my OBGYN and he sent me to a specialist (I call her the "sex" doctor). She added a medication to the ones I was already taking and within a week, my husband was a happy man! :D