Chemo Brain

I am doing well. I no longer have to take anything other than Lyrica for my peripheral neuropathy foot and leg pain. The fatigue has lessened and I rarely need to nap during the day any more. With this clarity, though, another issue has come to my attention. Chemo Brain.

This is a real side effect of chemotherapy.

Definition

By Mayo Clinic Staff

Chemo brain is a common term used by cancer survivors to describe thinking and memory problems that can occur after cancer treatment. Chemo brain can also be called chemo fog, chemotherapy-related cognitive impairment or cognitive dysfunction.

Signs and symptoms of chemo brain may include:

• Being unusually disorganized
• Confusion
• Difficulty concentrating
• Difficulty finding the right word
• Difficulty learning new skills
• Difficulty multitasking
• Fatigue
• Feeling of mental fogginess
• Short attention span
• Short-term memory problems
• Taking longer than usual to complete routine tasks
• Trouble with verbal memory, such as remembering a conversation
• Trouble with visual memory, such as recalling an image or list of words

So, I feel as dumb as a bag of hammers some days. Not always...but a lot of the time. It really sucks. As if peri-menopause didn't already mess with my head in the past few years...now this?!

So, on those days that I think, "Gee, wouldn't it be nice to collect a full paycheck again?", I realize that I could not go back to work. Not that I really want to anyway. As my life becomes more normal again, I have to remind myself of what I have been through and that I still need to give myself time to heal and to live a stress-free life-style to ensure a long remission period.

Some Myeloma patients consider themselves "cured" when they go into remission. I do feel victorious and am so, so pleased that I achieved a complete remission -- or complete absence of cancer -- after my stem cell transplant. The thing is that Multiple Myeloma does not get "cured". It goes to sleep - and sometimes for several years - but it will wake up again. So I feel that I am still battling cancer. Even though it is sleeping, I want to be as quiet as I can be so that I don't wake it up sooner. :)

When it does wake up, I have a whole slew of weapons ready in my arsenal. New ones are being added all the time. Of special significance is the work being done on virus therapy. This is really cool. Please take the time (43 minutes I think) to watch this video. If you, or a loved one is battling cancer, this should give you hope.

http://killingcancer.vice.com/?utm_source=vicenewsfb

Yogi and BooBoo

So...I was feeling great...pain was under control, fatigue was much, much better, and I wanted to do some exercise. I had gone to hot yoga about 3 years ago, and found that in my peri-menopausal state, a room at 105-110 degrees F was just not gonna work for me - yoga or no yoga...so I never went again. Two weeks ago I saw a Groupon for $60 for 60 days of hot yoga. With the frigid temperatures we have been having, I thought, why not give it a try again.

I loved it! I went Monday, Wednesday and Friday of that week. I drank extra water to replenish the buckets of sweat that left my body during my work-outs. I slept great and felt great. Until Saturday. Al and I went to the movies and I had popcorn, so after the movie I wasn't very hungry. We got some greasy yummies at a local pub -- wings, fried pickles, breaded mushrooms, etc... -- and I had a couple draught beers. Now 2 beers, does not do me in. I have can easily drink a Boston Pizza Schooner and still function quite normally, but these 2 beers made me feel quite light-headed. I mentionned it to Al when we got home, and an hour or so later I headed up to bed.

A couple hours later I awoke and my guts were roiling. Damn greasy food, I thought. Off to the loo I go. Once I started to "go" I started to feel sick to my stomach as well. During a "break in the action" I went to the bedroom to get the waste basket from my makeup vanity. Al just happened to be awake and he said I staggered out of the bathroom and did a header into the chair and table, landing in a heap on the floor...out cold. He got up and I shortly came around muttering about the need for a bucket. He asked me if I was drunk...LOL! I told him that I was sick.

I returned to bed and about 40 minutes later a awoke again with the same need for the loo. I remember putting the bucket on my lap as I was again feeling nauseated, and next thing I know Al is kneeling beside me on the bathroom floor. I guess he heard the THUD. I came around and headed back to bed again.

In the morning I felt fine...just tired, as one would expect after a night of stomach flu. I started to think about what had happened and why. I took my blood pressure. It is normally around 140/80 and it was 117/67. Yikes! I realized then what had happened.

The hot yoga had dehydrated me. The beer (alcohol) further dehydrated me and then the diarreah pushed my body over the edge. So dehydrated that my blood pressure dropped, I passed out.

I started to drink Powerade and water to replenish my fluids. I cancelled my Monday yoga class and continued to hydrate Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday I felt great, and went to yoga. I drank a Powerade an hour and a half before the class, and drank a litre of water during the class. I continued to hydrate the rest of the day. All was well...until Thursday morning.

When I got up to pee, I could hardly stand to be in the bathroom, the smell was so pungent. Yikes! Dehydrated again!!! Drink, drink, drink. I went to my monthly intravenous Pamidronate appointment at the hospital. They had trouble finding a vein because I was dehyrdated. They finally got one into my hand and about 2.5 hours into the 3 hour infusion, it popped through the vein and pumped the medicine into my hand.

Now I look beaten up. I was lucky not to have hit my head on either of my faints, but I have the remains of a big bruise on my upper arm where I hit the chair, I think. I also have bruises on my forearm and hand from the attempts to run the IV and my hand is still swollen and red from the interstitial iv.

The take away from all of this is that hot yoga is not for me! Obviously, I do not have the ability to replenish the fluids as necessary. I am going to continue with yoga...but not in the super-heated environment. :(

As you know, from reading this blog, simple, every-day activities often turn into adventures for me. I hope this one provided you with a laugh or two. Sorry if it was a little too detailed for your squeamish tummies. :)