Chemo #1: For better or worse.

So I've successfully made it to my third post-chemo day! Woot woot! Honestly it's been really odd and I'm having a hard time explaining how it feels to people, but I want this blog to be something I can look back on and use to remember what happened, so I'm going to try my best.

Saturday morning I was in a steroid-induced frenzy of energy, but I knew that I was tired. If that even makes sense. I made six different kinds of cupcakes and graded papers and talked to my parents who had come up for the morning. Michelle really enjoyed my extra energy. By about one in the afternoon, all I wanted to do was sleep because my body was exhausted. The stupid steroids should've worn off by then, but they were still keeping me wide awake no matter how much I tried to rest. I got more and more frustrated as the day went on. If you know me, you know I really value my sleep time. Bed time is the best time!

Michelle went to our stake conference Saturday night, and she called one of our great bishopric members to come give me a blessing so I could sleep. Brother Barton and our Elder's Quorum President came over even though it was late and gave me a blessing of peace, comfort, and healing. It helped me out a lot. With the blessing and some medicine, I finally got to sleep late Saturday night. I slept pretty soundly until early Sunday afternoon.

Sunday afternoon, we drove down to Provo, where I mostly ended up sleeping some more. I noticed Sunday that my nausea wasn't as bad as Saturday, but that my taste is changing. Things that usually taste good make me sick just thinking about them, so who knows what I will even eat. Last night I didn't even need medicine to help me sleep because I was just straight up exhausted!

Waking up this morning was rough. My body is just realllllly tired. I got up, took a shower, and then sat down for a minute because I was tired from taking a shower. I took a stool from my living room and sat on it to do my hair. My arms were tired. I would've just stayed home today, but midterm grades are due by midnight and my students had things they needed to turn in before I finalized grades. I might end up taking the day off tomorrow to sleep and recover a little since my schedule was so thrown off by those dang steroids.

Overall, the chemo effects have been better and worse than I expected. I don't feel sick, necessarily, just zapped of energy. My tastes are changing, I have dry mouth, and my tongue hurts - almost like a burning sensation. Standing up for too long makes me nauseous, and thinking about different kinds of foods makes me feel sick as well. I just have to be careful what I think about, I guess! I'm drinking lots of Sprite. :)

Oh and for those of you who were just dying to find out what kind of shake I had after chemo... classic chocolate won!