Off Week

Just a short update.

No treatment last week. It’s nice to have a little break although it means I work a full day instead of a half day. But I appreciate not having to rush downtown, always running late, worrying if I’ll run into traffic or construction, and getting there just in the nick of time (so far).

Last week was actually a very good week. I felt almost back to normal. Not completely wiped out, no evening nap the entire week, I went to bed a normal time (instead of 8:00 or 9:00 as I do when I’m dealing with fatigue), and my mind just seemed clear. It’s hard to describe how good it is to feel like my old self. Hopefully it will last. I wouldn’t say I felt 100% back to normal but I think I’m definitely getting closer. For now anyway.

I added nifedipine back into my meds for my blood pressure. It has helped quite a bit BUT it’s causing swelling in my ankles and feet. I guess all these “-pine” blood pressure meds have that as a side effect (amlodipine being the other I’ve been on). I cut the dosage down so we’ll see how that works. It’s always something. This improves but that gets worse.

Last week my feet didn’t bug me much at all. I thought I was out of the woods with the neuropathy stuff. But nope, I was wrong. I started having issues again this week. Dammit.

I haven’t yet told my doc that I’ve been messing around with my BP meds. We’ll see how the creatinine looks this week. Hopefully I won’t have screwed that up with adding in these meds; I’ll know in a couple days. But something had to be done. I couldn’t keep walking around just waiting to have a stroke.

I ran into a provider at the clinic today whom I haven’t seen in quite a while—since shortly before the pandemic. He asked how all this kidney stuff was going. I gave him a synopsis of all that had transpired in the last year. It’s crazy to remember all that stuff…the trip to PA, the chemo that didn’t work, two hospital admissions, two more chemo drugs. I can’t believe this all happened in a little over a year. He couldn’t believe it either. His jaw just kept dropping lower and lower. He said, “But you just look like your normal self. I wouldn’t believe you’ve been through all this!” That was good to hear—that I looked like my normal self. I told him six months ago he probably wouldn’t even have recognized me, moonfaced, eyes all swollen, hair falling out… I’m so glad all of that has improved!