Dost thou ask when comes His hour?
Then, when it shall aid thee best.
Trust His faithfulness and power,
Trust in Him, and quiet rest.
ANON.
My last treatment ended in the Fall of 2016. It is hard to believe that it will be almost two years since my last bout with cancer. It certainly has gone by real fast. Even though, it has been two years, my body is still recovering. That's why it's hard to believe the length of time gone by.
It never ceases to amaze me how long it takes for the body to come back to normal. Take my veins, for instance. It's been eleven years since my cancer and these poor veins are still missing! By missing, I mean difficult to draw blood. Believe me, the nurse has to work overtime on plumping up my veins!
The fatigue never really goes away. In fact, doing any kind of physical work brings on severe fatigue. It seems those days are over where we can do very laborious work like painting. I still try to do some things like that, but find there is a price to pay. When I finished painting the kitchen, I was completely drained for almost three days! And it took me that many days to complete the kitchen!
Then there are those minor, but irksome type of side effects. My nails, especially toenails, are very brittle. I have placed myself on vitamins to take care of this problem. So far, my hands look pretty good, but I still have brittle toenails. Not very pretty. After every bout with cancer, I develop this crustiness behind my ears. Again, not very pretty. This I usually can get rid by wiping them down with alcohol twice a day. Sometimes, I even get these skin pigmentation discoloration on certain areas of my body. My doctor usually will prescribe a cream for that. I think the problem lies, according to her, with the fact that my immune system is affected by the treatment. It is weakened.
Now for my favorite part, my legs. Chemotherapy and radiation work great to stop your cancer, but they also weaken your bones/joints. What began as some arthritis in my left knee, has escalated to both legs beginning from my hips down. There is also my right arm that has begun hurting. That also could be from the crocheting or maybe it just irritates it even more.
I can see a major difference in my body's reaction after each treatment. I worry about the next time and what it will be like afterwards. For now, we are taking each day as it comes dealing with whatever ache or pain that it may bring. My illness is no different than someone else who may be dealing with heart problems, diabetes or chronic pain of any kind. There are different levels of pain. Today it may be bearable, but tomorrow may be unbearable. One can never tell.
Have a blessed day everyone.
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