New Chemo, New side effects

As I suspected, starting a different type of chemotherapy has different side effects. I think my mouth and throat have had it the worst. My sinuses are still draining down the back of my throat constantly only the chemicals in the drainage is a lot harder on my throat and voice. My throat is sore almost all the time now. My voice also sound funny and strained. My mouth and tongue have been bothering me all week. My tongue has been swollen and has tinny blisters in the front and larger ones in the back. This has really effected how things taste. I have really been struggling with drinking enough. Most drinks either taste gross or too sweet and make my tongue hurt more. On Monday we went to Sizzler for my Mother-In-Law's birthday. I love their strawberry lemonade. I usually drink 3 - 4 glasses when I am there. I had one. When the waitress asked if I wanted more I switched to diet pepsi. When she came back again I couldn't decide what I wanted. I finally decided on another lemonade but I couldn't get myself to drink it all. I know I need to drink but it it so hard when your mouth hurts. I have been trying every drink I can find hoping to find something that I would like to drink. I even tried a drink at IHOP that was sprite, Orange Juice, and mango juice. That was just weird. I did figure out that I like Xzude sports water better than regular water. The problem is that my kids are drinking it faster than I am.

My hands broke out in a rash on Tuesday. It is on both my thumbs and a few small spots on my fingers. The itching has mostly gone away, now it is just red. My fingernails have started changing colors. Normally you would notice this by the cuticle because that is where they grow from. Mine have a thin dark ring at the top where the nail and the skin separate. I really hope this isn't a sign that the skin is dieing underneath. I think it would be harder on me to loose my nails than it was to loose my hair. It is not that I like long nails or that I even paint them. It is more that I wouldn't know what to without them. How would I protect the sensitive area underneath? What will my hands look like? What will they look like as the nails grow back? Will they grow back? I'm just going to keep praying that they don't fall off.

One other side effect that they warned me about is numbness, tingling, prickling, and burning in my hands and feet. I think this is call neropathy? I started having a tingling feeling in the heal of my left foot but that only lasted for a few days. Other than that I am okay so far.

The beginning of the week was hard. I just didn't feel well enough to do much of anything. We ended up pulling Shawn out of school again. He really didn't want to do that but we didn't have any choice because he can't sit through more that one class at a time. He loves science so much that he is still going even though he hurts while he is there. His math teacher and seminary teacher will each come teach him once a week. Susan, his home and hospital teacher will come on Fridays and cover the other 5 classes. School gets out on May 23rd. He will finish up the week before because their grades have to be in sooner than the regular teachers.

I think the worst is over for this chemo session. I am looking forward to two weeks of hopefully feeling a little better. Next chemo is May 1st.