What a difference a few days makes.  Since Monday, I have been feeling so much better.  No more nausea (and I’m not taking any anti-nausea drugs), and the diarrhea stopped after Tuesday.  I’ve been slowly expanding what I’ve been eating, and discovered that egg and tuna salads sit well with me.  An easy way for me to get protein, so I’m eating a lot of egg or tuna salad sandwiches.  I had sushi and sashimi last night, and so far so good.  What I’ve discovered is that I’ve lost my salt taste buds.  So nothing tastes salty to me.  Ironic, because I’m low in all my salt values and continue to take potassium pills.  I can salt my food liberally but I can’t taste it.  I can taste the soy flavoring, but not the salt itself.  It’s very strange.  All my other taste buds seem intact (sweet, sour, bitter).  Sour chewy Sweetarts, you are my friend.

I went to work this week, and by Thursday I was TIRED.  I was in bed by 9:00 pm that night, and asleep by 9:30.  I’m normally a person who gets between 4-5 hours a sleep a night, going to bed after midnight or 1 am routinely.  I’ve been going to bed earlier and getting at least 6 hours of sleep a night since I started chemo, and I’ve not had any sleeping problems except for perhaps 1 or 2 nights.  So for me to be asleep before 10 is highly unusual…but perhaps not now.  As I said to my sister the other day, nothing about this year is normal.

Dr. K prescribed antibiotics on Friday.  I think she remains concerned that my port continues to ooze some pus and just won’t heal.  That combined with the fact that my face basically got cooked from the inside – so much so that my high cheeks blistered and started oozing made Dr. K want to prevent any infections.  I also gave myself a bloody nose on Friday.  There I was at work with my head tilted back to stop the bleeding.  How did I get the bloody nose?  Blowing my nose!  I definitely think I caught a little cold or something – the post nasal drop has been non-stop.

The newest fun time?  My feet hurt, particularly my heels.  I thought at first it was due to my wearing pumps to work without wearing any pantyhose, but that’s not the case.  My heels are hot, and hurt to touch, which makes walking very painful.  I called the on-call oncologist this morning…and he consulted with Dr. K.  They both think it’s still due to the Taxotere, and told me to treat it symptomatically.  Ice the feet, take NSAIDs and anti-histamines.  I hope the pain resolves itself today and tonight – I leave for a business trip tomorrow and I don’t relish having to walk through airports and long hotel corridors with feet which hurt.  Not to mention that at conferences you do a lot of standing on your feet.

The second newest fun time?  My employer reduced my last 2 paychecks, but I received only 1 check from The Hartford, and it’s for only 1/4 of what is missing from my paycheck.  It’s very possible I don’t have enough to pay my bills this week!  I was not expecting this, because apparently I was spoiled by my last employer.  The other times I’ve taken disability, my former employer continued to pay me my full salary (as long as I had enough leave to cover, which I do), and obviously they worked out getting reimbursed by the disability insurance company. My current employer apparently likes to make things hard on the employee – never mind that this is completely adding to any stress that an employee may be feeling by being on disability in the first place.  I contacted Payroll on Wednesday, and received a reply that Payroll only processes what Benefits tells them to process, and that Benefits would need to contact me.  I haven’t heard from Benefits yet, so guess what my first call tomorrow will be?  I can’t say I’m happy about this situation, although I know that this too, shall pass.

Other than that, it’s a glorious weekend here in northern CA.  I got out to watch some Stanford baseball yesterday, and am headed there today too.  Nothing like a little baseball in the sun to lift one’s spirits.