Journal: News & Comment

Side effects or not?

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Yesterday was tremendously busy. After I got up and put on the super-comfy new Lululemon trousers my wife helped me pick out on Friday, she and I took our daughters to their first taekwondo class (although our youngest, feeling shy, just watched), then popped home before the kids took advantage of the nice weather and rode their bikes for an hour. Then their usual Saturday piano lesson.

Meanwhile, my wife spent the afternoon laying down new faux-wood linoleum flooring for my parents (to match what she'd already done for our house), and after that we all went out to dinner.

This morning I wanted her to be able to sleep in without too much ruckus in the house, so after falling for a couple of mild April Fool's jokes, I took the kids out for breakfast. While I felt great then, and the omelette was fabulous, when I got home I was tired, very tired. I slept for almost four hours, and I'm still sluggish-sleepy several hours after that.

I don't know how much of that sleepiness is a side effect of the bevacizumab dosage I received on Thursday, which is probably taking full effect now. That's because I'm still taking Tylenol 1 (and sometimes Tylenol 3) painkillers, plus iron pills to combat anemia, plus daily multivitamins, plus my usual insulin. I'm still in regular low-level pain from the cancer in my bowel—I don't think I can blame it on my February 20 surgery anymore. Did I overdo it yesterday? I don't know. I could have felt like this even if I'd spent the whole of Saturday at home.

And of course I'm worried and nervous about everything else that's to come. This isn't even the full-on chemotherapy yet, after all.

I really wanted to help my oldest daughter pick out some new glasses today, but I just couldn't wake up enough, so my wife took the kids instead. I hope I'm better tomorrow, but if not, I'll have to accept being sleepy. Damn this sucks, and it's going to suck more.

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