Day 13 - Side Effects

My radiotherapy sessions are pretty much every day at 3.20pm in the afternoon. Every Tuesday after my session I meet with the Medical Oncologist (Chemo doctor) to discuss the onset of side-effects, general well being, my weight and vital signs, and my blood test results. I get my blood tested every week two days before my next chemo cycle to make sure my blood has recovered enough to take another dose.

Before meeting the Doctor, I weigh myself in a room they have set aside for this purpose for all patients. The weighting machine has a button which you push to obtain a print out of your weight, which you give to the Doctor, who presumably checks it against previous print outs to monitor weight. Fortunately, at this time I've been eating as much food as is physically in reach. Even with my exercising, I'm managing to sustain my weight. All good so far.

I explained to the Doctor that the rash has not gotten any better with the antibiotic medicine that I was prescribed the previous week. In fact, this combined with the Sorbalene Cream had made it worse. I had blisters all over my face and it was very red. He was about to prescribe a stronger dose antibiotic, but before he did we also discussed my now constant sore throat and dry mouth.

Over the previous weekend, I sought Vicki's advice to reduce the severity of my constant headache. She said I should take Panadol and Nurefin together, which is a combination the Doctors had already mentioned to me was acceptable during treatment. As a result of having taken these in the morning, it had taken the edge off my headache and I almost forgot to mention it. Luckily, the Doctor asked if I was experiencing any kind of 'fullness' in my head, meaning the type of feeling you get when you have a head cold. Not necessarily a headache, but a heaviness not normally present. I explained that I did but it seemed to me to be minor, but it triggered my memory about the headaches. I explained the constant headache to him.

I gather this presented a bit of a dilemma because he went to get the head Oncologist, who is in charge of my treatment program. After a quick discussion with her, she mentioned that in the fine print of the antibiotic drug I was taking it mentioned that some patients may experience headaches. She said it was very rare. Nevertheless, she advised to cease taking the medication immediately and see if the headaches went away. If there were not more headaches, they would prescribe a different medication to fix the rash. In the meantime, they prescribed a topical ointment with antibiotic to dab on the rash.

I also mentioned to her that I had stopped putting Sorbalene on the rash. I explained that I made a salt solution, similar to what I was using for my M&T Routine, and dabbed it on my face. I felt this might work better because I had never experienced bad acne as a teenager and I put this down to the amount of surfing I was doing at the time. I explained that the effect was immediate, so I've continued to use the salt solution rather than the Sorbalene. She mentioned that my skins natural reaction is to likely create more oil to offset the dryness caused by the salt, but that if it worked that I should continue to use it. I said I'd keep the solution quite weak and was only dabbing it on lightly (it stung when applied).

The Doctor also prescribed three types of mouth wash to add to my ever expanding stash of ointments and medicines. The three mouth washes were to be used concurrently, but staggered over time, to relief my sore throat and allow me to eat. One was available over the counter, while two were only available by prescription from the hospital Pharmacy. I decided to use on the over the counter product until my throat got worse. The stuff wasn't cheap.

My medications are starting to take over our ensuite and I reckon it is going to get worse.

After purchasing the mouth wash and antibiotic ointment, I drove to pick up my son from a friends before arriving home at 5.30pm.

We ate Chow Mein Mince for dinner followed by an ice cream. Watched a little TV, before completing my M&T Routine , applying the topical antibiotic ointment on my face and going to bed at 10.30.