Cumulative Effects

Apparently, a lot of the chemo side effects are cumulative. Well tolerated at first, the olaxiplatin is kicking my butt today. Specifically, cold sensitivity is now real. If I hold on to a can of cold soda for more than about 15 seconds it hurts. A lot. If I try to swallow a cold liquid, it hurts like if you had a bad sore throat from a cold. Swallowing tepid or warm liquids is no problem at all. Lucky for me it's November :)

I have also done a little self diagnosis. I think I'm suffering from chemo brain. From the web site:

• Word finding. You might find yourself reaching for the right word in conversation.


• Memory. You might experience short-term memory lapses, such as not remembering where you put your keys or what you were supposed to buy at the store.


• Multitasking. Many jobs require you to manage multiple tasks during the day. Multitasking is important at work as well as at home — for example, talking with your kids and making dinner at the same time. Chemotherapy may affect how well you're able to perform multiple tasks at once.


• Learning. It might take longer to learn new things. For example, you might find you need to read paragraphs over a few times before you get the meaning.


• Processing speed. It might take you longer to do tasks that were once quick and easy for you.

What it feels like is that balloon-headed feeling you get when you have the flu. It's just damned hard to concentrate, or remember what it was I was supposed to be doing. Doing simple tasks like driving, or participating in conference calls, where I'm only focusing on one thing, seem to be ok. Organizing the many things to do at work isn't working out very well. I'm missing things. Stuff that needs done isn't getting done. I think I'm going to start working from a list, see if that helps. According to this site, it could be the anti-nausea medicine causing it. I'll talk to my oncologist about it.

On another note, the radiation machine was broken today, so I didn't get zapped. It'll be fixed tomorrow morning, so I'll get a lunch-time shot of X-Rays. This will push my last day of treatment from December 22nd to the 23rd. I don't know if this effects the chemo treatments or not, I'll check with them tomorrow.