These side effects are crazy!
Days 1–5: Body aches, nausea, bloody nose, bloody gums after brushing my teeth, heartburn, indigestion, and this weird feeling every time I swallow—like my throat is turning inside out.
Days 5–10: The most insane explosive diarrhea I’ve ever experienced in my life!
Sorry, TMI… I know. 😳
I also had the craziest, heaviest period I’ve ever experienced. Like, bleeding through a super tampon AND a pad in 10 minutes.
Hopefully this will be my last period. I had to get a prescription for tranexamic acid to stop the bleeding, and next week I’m getting a Lupron injection, which will basically put my ovaries into hibernation.
Bye-bye to my fertility!
Day 14: Right on the dot, just like it said in my chemo manual…
I started losing my hair.
First, my whole head felt sore, almost like that headache you get from wearing a ponytail that’s way too tight.
Then I started pulling out clumps of hair.
And then more.
And more.
Until I was pulling out fistfuls.
I’d wake up practically strangled by all my loose hair, like something out of The Grudge. My scalp was also insanely itchy, and I was scratching so much that I actually had scabs all over my head.
I was losing so much hair everywhere that I finally decided to shave it off.
It wasn’t a G.I. Jane moment at all.
I was so, so sad.
I couldn’t stop crying.
The first time I looked at myself in the mirror with a bald head, I thought I looked like an alien. Well, actually, since I couldn’t shave it evenly because of all the scabs on my scalp, I looked more like a plucked chicken.
Bok bok bitch.
I know my hair will grow back.
And yeah, “It’s just hair.”
(P.S. Until it’s YOUR hair!)
But seriously, I’d like to see anyone go through this and not feel even the tiniest bit sorry for themselves.
So let me have my little pity party, okayyyy!?!!!
The funny thing is, I seriously thought I was going to be in the 1% who didn’t lose their hair, so I hadn’t even thought about getting a wig.
I remember when I first went to see the breast surgeon, her nurse handed me a business card for a place that specializes in wigs for chemo patients. But back then I was still in denial.
Plus, apparently the best time to get a wig is when you still have hair.
Oh well!
Maybe next week I’ll go check them out.
When I was waiting to go in for my liver biopsy, the nurses kept telling me:
“Don’t worry. It’ll grow back stronger and more beautiful.”
I wanted to scream.
My hair was already strong, thick and beautiful! I had the most beautiful hair in the world! 😠
The funny thing is, out of all the hair I was pulling out—and BTW, it didn’t hurt at all—the white hairs seemed determined to stay.
I’ve had lots of white hair for as long as I can remember, but now, after shaving my head, I have three white hairs sticking straight up from the top of my head like Tweety Bird.
WTF!
So far I haven’t gotten the mouth sores, nails falling-off (omg) or neuropathy.
But I’m sure there’s more to come.
To be continued…
