Let me start out by apologizing to those of you who read this daily. As you may have noticed by now, I rarely write on the w-e's anymore, even if I am seen in the clinic. Somedays are so routine that I am not sure what I have to contribute here. I don't want my writing to feel like a burden, something I have to do. I want it to be fun and informative. Somedays I don't have much to say, so I may write later in the day or save it for the next day. It doesn't mean anything is wrong or that anything bad has happened. I'm just stumped for words.
Today is my 6th day with this painful mouthsore on the back of my tongue. It's a side effect from the chemo and having low counts. I briefly had one last chemo cycle too, but it healed within a day or two and never affected my eating. This one is located way in the back of my mouth, on the outer edge of my tongue and rubs against my back molars, especially when I eat. My counts have stayed low this cycle for longer than any previous cycle so my mouthsore hasn't been able to heal. They gave me some magic mouthwash to help it along and lidocaine jelly to numb it. I have been taking tylenol too, which at least dulls the pain. Saturday it was at its worst, and we came back from Asheville early so that I could take some prescription pain medicine I have here in Hillsborough. I wouldn't be surprised if I had similar rough spots in my intestines too, since my stomach has been a bit iffy too. You can get these sores anywhere along the mucous lining of the GI tract (mouth to rectum), and it's called mucositis. I am looking forward to the rebound of my counts, especially my white blood cells, because they help heal the mucous membranes. I have continued to eat despite the pain of this thing, but I am ready for a break already.
I did go to clinic yesterday and spent about 5 and 1/2 hours there. My hemoglobin came back low again at 7.6 so they gave me 2 units of red blood cells, which took a while. My white cell count is still in the basement at 0.3, and my platelets were 16,000. Between the low counts and this mouthsore, I have been extra tired the past few days. I have been laying around more than usual, though we did take a nice walk up the hill behind our house in Asheville. I just didn't have the strength or desire to run it. This 3rd cycle of chemo has definitely taken more out of me. I've been slower to bounce back and because my red cell counts have been low for so much of this cycle, I've been more tired than usual. I'm sure I'll be surging soon.
Today's photo is from the hill behind our house in Asheville. The leaves are starting to change but don't seem to be at peak yet.
2 comments:
I'm sorry about your mouth sore! I am sure that feels awful. I get apthous ulcers from time-to-time and we'll sometimes cauterize them with silver nitrate(which is remarkably painful but shorten their course), but with it being on your tongue and a side effect from chemo, I doubt that would help. Ugghhh. Would nystatin help? I guess this slow rebound is the natural course after repeated beatings of your bone marrow. Just one more, though, right? Keep on swimming.
Love you friend, and thinking of you.
shannon
Yep, I am doing better now that my counts are rebounding. I do have nystatin in the mouthwash and I take that big ole anti-fungal noxafil in addn to acyclovir and lidocaine. But it is improving. That is a relief.-taf
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