DOT + 29 Fatique

Day of Transplant + 29

A friend  and stem cell veteran told me before I went in for my transplant that I would not believe how tired I would get. She said that one day her goal was just to read the get well cards that had accumulated, and she would fall asleep just trying to read a card..

Well I can now relate.  The last two weeks have been marked by a fatigue and ennui. Falling asleep in the muddle of a sentence, slow to respond to questions, stuff like that.

Same as Mr.Natch, but without the beard.

These feelings of weariness have been echoed by my son Josh's wife Ramona who is simultaneously undergoing treatment for cancer of the lady parts in Berlin. Her most excellent blog is here. Her post of
April 29th is reprinted below the jump, along with a soundtrack of the same name.




Soundtrack Beatles

From Nobody's Cancer

"So Tired 

They say exhaustion and fatigue are the most common "side" effects of both chemo and radiation,

 and Joshua and I planned to be prepared for that. I never knew what tired was until this. My dad 

brought a deck of cards to the hospital thinking maybe we'd play and just looking at them gave me 

the feeling of being overwhelmed by too much to think about. It's a brain tired where there's no 

room for anything; I haven't been able to do much reading, movie watching, knitting, or anything 

else that typically works as a leisure activity because just thinking about it makes me tired. Lying in 

bed, listening to nothing, doing nothing, and thinking about nothing is perfectly satisfying...

I'm coming back. I still feel pooped when I think about thinking, but it's going to get better from 

here on out."

Ramona

--------------------------

 I have been about the same- unable to read much because my tear ducts are being rebuilt, Palms and soles of feet are to sensitive to play even my Nylon Baritone Uke, or walk any distance. I have been putting in a mile or so a day  at the clinic on one of these rigs, but it is not the same as walking.  

So I too have spent many hours in a semi-somnolent state fading in and out of sleep, while a 

major rebuild project is going on within me. Work on my mouth and alimentary 

canal and G I tract seems to be progressing. New skin is pushing old off by means of rashes.

The doses of my many meds are decreasing.  Day 30 is tomorrow  the 1/3 mark.  We must find

some way to celebrate - pity I can't taste or smell anything yet.

It's going to get better from here on out.

C