- Sleeping Beauty . . .

. . . Sleeping Beauty . . . ah, yes, that would be me. Since I began the Taxol & Herceptin chemo this past Monday, I have had the joy of aching, eating & sleeping almost non-stop since Wednesday. A tough life, but somebody's gotta do it.

I did have a brief respite, I must say, before suffering these side effects. As I told you, I was stoned on Monday during the chemo (from the Benadryl they mix with it to prevent allergic reactions) and after leaving the hospital, I felt mighty fine for the rest of the day and the following Tuesday (from the steroids they mix with it to do who-knows-what). So I had a couple of days' break.

But from Wednesday until now, it's been pretty bleak. It feels exactly like having the flu but without the sniffles or cough or anything like that. Just body aches; that's it.

I called my Primary Care nurse in Oncology today to make sure this is a normal reaction and she assured me it is. Oh, goody!

Never mind, sleeping is better than throwing up, which is what everyone always expects will happen when they're on chemo. Thankfully, many of the chemos - especially the breast cancer chemos - are very good now and upchucking isn't as huge a likelihood as in the bad old days.

I think I mentioned before, though, that chemo knocks women into menopause, and I am definitely NO exception!! Whooeee, it's HOT in here! And "in here" is wherever I happen to be at the moment!! 

Why, I'm having a hot flash even now, as I type this!! What a delight it is to feel as though I really am in Hawaii after all, when in fact, my feet are firmly planted on the snowy banks of Quebec in the wintertime.

I'm absolutely, 100% certain that it is 400 degrees in this living room right at this moment. It must be - there's no other reasonable explanation for it.

Some of you have asked if my menopause will cease when I'm finished the chemo. The answer I've been given by medical staff is that if a woman is around the menopausal age anyways when the chemo begins, she'll go into menopause and stay there, whereas a younger woman will experience the menopausal symptoms but resume her periods when she's done with chemo. 

So the short answer is, yup, it's here to stay. Whaddya know!?!?

I guess this is a good segue (in case you don't know what that means, it's "to make a transition from one thing to another smoothly and without interruption") to refer you to my "Menopause" song, which I happened to write 'way back in 1999, before menopause was *ever* even on my radar.

Anyways, click on the link below, which will bring you to the Funny Videos page of my website. 

http://www.wendy.ca/content/view/27/31/ 

Then look underneath the video box and click on:
"Menopause! A favorite of women (and their men) everywhere."

And then you'll get an idea of what I'm going through right now. Except I don't feel moody. Yet.

Well, I must go back to bed, because my achy breaky body hurts when I sit up. Never mind, it's all a part of the journey, and these symptoms should clear up as I continue with the remaining 11 weeks of this chemo. Or, the symptoms will get worse. Hmm. The suspense is killing me!

Have a great weekend,

Love from ME!