31st Jan 2019 – I didn’t get much sleep last night, but apparently that’s quite normal due to the amount of steroids in the chemotherapy drugs from yesterday. I’ve got at-home chemo for 2 days which just means I need to carry ‘Baxter’ around with me wherever I go. Started my day with a bit of brekkie so I could take my precautionary nausea tablets. I took a back up nausea tablet at 9pm as I just wasn’t feeling 100%. Had a pretty good day otherwise, just a little bit tired.

1st Feb 2019 – Managed to get a solid 8hrs sleep! YAY! It was definitely needed and I woke up feeling quite energised. Unfortunately it didn’t last long but I think that was more because I stayed on the couch for most of the day. Will try not to do that again. I had a nap in the afternoon – this is a new thing for me as I never nap! The at-home nurse came to check on Baxter but it wasn’t finished yet so she will come out and disconnect it tomorrow morning instead. Went out for a few hours and it was nice to get out of the house, catch up with friends and go for a walk in the fresh air.

2nd Feb 2019 – Woke up at 5am and according to Anthony, I did some ‘extra sleeping’ about an hour later! The nurse came to disconnect Baxter and flush my PICC line. An hour or so later I wasn’t feeling the best and started getting hot flushes, which is a side effect of an injection called Zoladex. I had the injection of Zoladex last week to put my ovaries into a temporary shutdown – similar to menopause – to protect them during chemo. The downside to this is the hot flushes I experienced all day today 😓 I lost most of my appetite today and when I did eat it was very bland foods. The 35c weather today didn’t help with the hot flushes either so I spent most of the day on the couch turning on and off the air con. I had been told that the 2 days after chemo would probably be the worst for side effects and today proved that correct. I just felt drained, hot and a bit moody. I did have about 4 naps across the day but each time I woke up feeling hot again. Ended the day feeling better than I started and even managed to watch the original Mary Poppins for the first time ever!

3rd Feb 2019 – Felt ok this morning except for a throbbing on/off pain on the right side of my abdomen. Similar to the pain I felt in my liver previously but a bit further down. It seemed to ease when I lay down but was quite painful whenever I sat or stood up straight. Took some panadol to try and ease the pain which helped. Managed to eat quite a bit for breakfast and kept trying to drink plenty of liquids since it was 40c today. No hot flushes today but I did stay inside until the temperature cooled down a bit! Around 4pm, my right shoulder started giving me some pain, similar to the original symptom (which I had no idea at the time was related to cancer). Took some more panadol which dulled the pain but it flared up again so I had an endone a couple of hours later. No point being in any extra pain if I don’t need to be!

This week has definitely had it’s ups and downs and so many new feelings and thoughts. I’m looking forward to starting a new week tomorrow with a positive attitude!