This week began with my second chemo session. Based on the side effects of the first one, I was very apprehensive about this second session starting.

The administering of the chemo itself is painless, although the surroundings can be uncomfortable. The chairs are not the best, for comfort and the room itself is warm. This is no doubt designed for people at various stages and dealing with more extreme side effects. However, it makes for an uncomfortable 1.5 hours (1 hour for the actual chemo, around 30 minutes for the before and after set ups). I had been advised that my treatment plan is ‘easy’, as some people can have a 9-hour session in one go. During this session, the people at either side of me were certainly having longer sessions, with one of those being at least 4-hours, based on what was said.

The same day was my grandson’s 5th birthday, so with the aim of trying to do normal things, in normal ways, we made our way there after the chemo. That is another highlight and one of those key dates where I was unsure as to whether I would get to experience it, during that, ‘you have something there / no defined prognosis’ period. The end of that week was Easter, so we managed to squeeze in some time at the park with my son, daughter, and grandson, playing around with various toys and enjoying the weather. A nice ‘normal’ end to the week, and one that helped me put the cancer to the back of my mind, even if only for a few hours.

The rest of the week was fairly normal and definitely more manageable / less impactful than the first session. The main impact was tiredness and a general feeling of my body moving in slower motion / legs being heavier to move. The main adjustment that week was to ensure I was resting more each evening, to counter this ‘slowness’. On the Saturday, my hands swelled up, got very red and became irritable. As they were my hands, a very challenging side effect, as they are in constant use! The rapid removal of my wedding ring and the one that was previously on my dad’s finger, were necessary, but very challenging to remove.

The other aspect that I was focusing on that week, was the decorating of one of our bedrooms. Sounds straightforward, depending on whether you like DIY (I do), but adjustments were necessary from start to finish. Sandra was concerned about the impact and discussed with me, the potential of getting a professional in to do it. However, my current mindset is, I will try to do my ‘normal’ things, as long as I am physically able to do so. With the addition of the cancer, there is also the psychological aspect; that of, ‘can I do this still’? The main focus for the week was prepping the walls, ahead of starting to re-paper them, so a fairly ‘easy’ week, doing separate sections each evening.

Thanks for continuing to read and take the time out of your day.