How is chemo?

If you are anything like me, when you think of someone going through chemotherapy, you picture a sickly person who lies in bed all day and only gets out of bed to throw up.  This is how the media depicts chemo, however it is a very false statement.  Sure this may have been the case 10 years ago but today there are many medications that help with nausea and other side effects.  Since I have started treatments I have not thrown up!  Yay!  I have definitely felt sick, but "cancer treatment" sick is different from "flu" sick.  When you have the flu you think, "If only I could throw up I would feel so much better."  For me, the sickness I am experiencing would not be any better if I threw up, nor does it induce such feelings.  I don't exactly know how else to explain it, so that's what you get.

With that said, it has only been 4 days since my first treatment so my symptoms could become worse than they are at present.  The first few days were rough because I came down with a raging fever.  The doctor's weren't too worried because I was keeping down liquids (even though water tasted so so gross to me and didn't settle too well on my stomach) and not enough time had passed for them to be concerned I had an infection.  A high fever is a sign of infection, so if I have a fever over 100.5 I need to call in. They told me to just keep taking tylenol and if my symptoms became worse to go into the ER.  Luckily the fever broke after about a day and a half and now I'm fine.  I have heard of this happening to other cancer patients after their first chemo treatment.  Think about it, they inject you with a drug that not only kills the bad cancer cells, but also all other fast growing cells.  Your body see's it as poison and tries to fight it off, I guess I could see this as a good thing that my body is fighting.  I was lucky to have Tim with me Friday night when the fever got up to 102.7.  I woke up at 3 am feeling as though I was standing in a furnace.  He stayed with me and held my hand until I fell asleep around 6.  He takes good care of me.

Saturday morning I was feeling much better and came back up to Logan.  I was able to go to all three hours of church on sunday proceeded by a 2 hour nap...lots of drugs makes you tired! And today has been great so far!  I don't think this will be as bad as I was expecting it to be, granted it could get worse, but as for now I am doing well.