And hopefully being able to manage them better before panicking into some wild imagination of what's happening to me...
Throughout the 3 hours infusion in the morning, I get drowsy 5 minutes into the dexamethasone. It's one of the 3 anti-allergies medication before they switch to PAC and then Herceptin. Read about the side effects here: http://www.drugs.com/sfx/dexamethasone-side-effects.html
The rest of my day would be slight dizziness and feeling weak with motions and really slow in speech. As a matter of fact, it's bad delay in digesting information received and constructing words to deliver out.
Towards the evening, or slightly after dinner, the taste in the mouth is metallic-y (like how I felt during AC infusion too). Luckily this is more manageable and weird taste will go away by the 3rd day. The weird taste can be covered by drinking warm water or anything but room temp water.
The most troubling effect for the first day, must be the sleepless night. And I blame it all to the dexamethasone again. My mind just couldn't stop thinking, worrying, wandering, working no matter how tired I am. The eyes are really heavy but I wouldn't stop opening again to check out the room. I think I only managed to catch 3 hour sleep last night. Plus the mood swing, it sucks big time!
And yes, thought of jotting down all these side effects came to me during the midnight too!
Today (the 2nd day), I will expect body chills, unexplained body flushes accompanying too. But regular temperature checks have always assured everything's fine.
Then the 'body ache' slowly kicking in during 2nd or 3rd day. For my case, the pain is mostly felt at my surgery site. Last week, I almost rushed down to the hospital for this. The pulling pain felt like the sharp pain I had before the surgery and it was really worrying. Thankfully it went away after the 4th day.
The remaining 5th, 6th or 7th day are identified as the 'good days' as I get to chill and go out smell fresh air a little. And lucky for me, cos they always are the weekends, cos my infusion is usually Tuesday or Wednesday.
Despite Doc O had told me that the 'good days' would be the lower immunity days as blood counts would be decreased by this window frame. But being happy and uplifted matters most, isn't it?
Other than the above, sometimes I feel the fingers tingling a little. I hope the numbness won't kick in so early, not until my last few infusion. Doc and fellowfigthter friend told me to expect this around the 5–8 infusion.
Lastly, tummy irritation, it feels the need to go all the time! But in actual fact, I actually encounter slight constipation.
All in all, keeping bacteria/germs/virus at bay and a good steady blood counts throughout the whole course — expected to end by my birthday next year.
Fighting!!
