April 25, 2007

  • New Side Effect... and SNOW!!!

    Well, this morning, I woke up and got up to go to the bathroom, like normal.  And my feet felt funny.  Kind of like they were asleep or swollen.  Or asleep and swollen.  But they were not swollen, and there was no reason for them to be asleep.

    So, it appears that I have Neuropathy.  Here's something that I found on Taxol and Neuropathy so that you guys know what's up and what we're facing:

    What is neuropathy??? Neuropathy literally means "disease of the nerves". Neuro- refers to nerves and -pathy refers to disease or dysfunction. Some of the symptoms of the type of neuropathy most frequently caused by chemotherapy are:

    • tingling (feeling of needles and pins) and burning,
    • loss of sensation to touch,
    • pain in the affected areas,
    • loss of positional sense (knowing where a body part is without looking), and
    • loss of balance.

    The most common areas of the body affected are the tips of the extremities (fingers and toes). This sensory loss may move gradually upward in a stocking-glove type fashion (as if you pulled a long glove on your arm or a knee-high sock on your foot and leg). This is called peripheral neuropathy. Sometimes other areas of the body (face, back, chest, etc) are affected. Some literature suggests than neuropathy can cause or worsen constipation and conditions such as ileus (intestinal obstruction).

    Although some of the signs of neuropathy may appear suddenly, this change in sensation usually builds gradually and gets worse with each subsequent dose of chemotherapy.

    It is usually strongest right after a treatment but tends to lessen just before the next treatment. The symptoms usually peak about 3-5 months after the last dose was taken. The abnormal sensations may disappear completely or lessen only partially; they may also involve less of the body. If neuropathy diminishes, it is a gradual process usually requiring several months. However it may be irreversible and never diminish in intensity or the area of body affected.

    You may have heard that we got a flash blizzard yesterday.  At our house, we had about 15 inches that drifted to 3 feet+ in places.  It took a very long time to get home from Compassion, and I couldn't get in today.  About the time Paul got us dug out enough for me to go in, we lost our power for 4 or 5 hours and I couldn't take a shower.  The joys of a well... no power, no water.

    I was able to work by battery on my laptop, but not being able to be connected to any network made it hard.  When you're a programmer, you need to be able to check your code in small steps.  Doesn't work well when you can't.

    Oh well.  At least we have power now.  There are some folks who aren't going  to have power before Saturday.  We were phoneless for about 2 hours prior to the power going out.  We had just gotten the phone back when the power went out.  Yucko!

    Well, my children have been outside some today, which is good, because they have MAJOR cabin fever.  Two snow days at the end of April is a bit much for them.  Ciera has had time to catch up with her schoolwork and housework, which has been a blessing for her.

    It will be good for them to go back to school tomorrow.

    My hair is getting really thin.  I found a major bald spot yesterday, and so I wore a hat to work.  At one point, it got really warm, but it was cute.  One of my family members sent me a gift certificate to a great hats website, and I bought a cool turban that has a way for you to thread scarves through it to change the look.  I think that turban will be perfect for the days that a regular hat is just too warm.  And I can buy fabric to change the look whenever I want, so that'll be great.  I did order 2 extra scarves to go with the turban, so I'll have 3 looks to interchange from the get-go.

    Y'all have a great night.  I'm off to take a shower...

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