After I published my last post, I started feeling really nauseous and sweating profusely. The sweat even has a different smell!

Eventually I took the (generic) Compazine I was prescribed, but it didn’t really help. Leave it to me to get the breakthrough nausea! A friend who is an oncology nurse at Children’s reassured me that it can be normal to be nauseous after the first chemo. She also said not all anti nausea meds work the same for everyone; some work better than others.

My headache migrated to a different location. I forced myself to eat one of my favorite comfort foods for dinner but only half the amount I normally do.

Saturday, my nausea was less severe than Friday. Today it is the same – ever present. I was told not to take Zofran until 72 hours after chemo, because I was given the same class of drugs in the IV. We tried reaching out to the doctor on call to ask about other medications, but it was a clusterfuck. I emailed my doctor instead, who said I can take Zofran. Things aren’t getting worse, so I’m trying to hold off for now.

Interestingly, today I started feeling pain in the mass. A physician assistant in a Pittsburgh thriver group I’m in said the mass probably hurts because it is responding to the chemo, which causes inflammation. She warned that it’s common for the mass to grow a bit before it starts to shrink.

I don’t like the steroids. They make me jittery and restless, and make my face warm and bright red. But this course ends after tomorrow morning, thank goodness. Of course, that means that other side effects might make an appearance!

One saving grace is that I’ve been able to sleep through the night. In fact, last night I went to bed shortly after 9 pm, I was so tired!