Two Weeks of the life of a Stage Four Rectal Cancer Patient in Chemotherapy Treatment--Day Eight, Nine, Ten, and Eleven

Day 8

I sleep through my alarm.

It happens.

So me. Source

I get ready, anyway, because I want to still make it to church. Well, I made it to church--only there was a half hour left. Worth it? No, probably not, but I want to try to be a good example to my kiddos and get to church no matter what. However, after someone coughs literally right by me and doesn't cover it (I don't know the person), I second guess my resolve to continue to come at all.

My mother-in-law has an awesome idea of sharing family history stories on Fast Sundays (the first Sunday of almost every month in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints--go without food or drink for 24 hours or if you medically can't go without food, go without something else like social media or TV or whatever), so we attended our first one today. She even was thoughtful enough to make it early so my brother-in-law and I could make it to the local choir practice. Too bad that local choir practice was moved up to an earlier time. We didn't miss the story, but we had to cut out early.

I am really weak today, and have to sit most of choir practice. I don't like to do this, but when energy goes in about five minutes, I have to.

Day 9 and 10

My hip and leg that were radiated and had the flap surgery are really hurting both of these days. I'm hoping it's not the same blood clot and pulmonary embolism kind of pain that I had a couple weeks ago, but it's hard to know for sure when your leg is completely numb other than the areas it's hurting. I take it easy, and stick to only doing the needed basics even though laundry is starting to pile up.

I decide not to teach my POUND class. I'm super bummed because I was looking forward to it, but I keep randomly getting weird body shakes on top of the pain, and I just can't justify going when I'm hurting so bad. I don't want to make it worse, so I don't cut out early from the in-laws as we celebrate a birthday. We were late, anyway, because Baby Girl decided to take an hour long bath after her swim lessons and wasn't ready to go when it was time to go.

I must be rubbing off on her. I'm always late.

Day 11

I take it easy again, do some stretches, and try my hardest to alleviate the pain I'm feeling. Nothing seems to be working long-term, and I'm probably going to have to call my doctor and possibly miss POUND again tomorrow.

I really don't like missing my class. It helps with stress management and keeps me sane. I need my POUND.

Usually I feel better by today, but I'm more nauseated than usual. Each round, it builds upon itself and gets harder and harder to not only do things, but to feel better.