Chemo Fatigue Has Set In
But hopefully it’s not here to stay.
Today was a rough one. I woke up feeling fantastic, but after trying to get ready this morning, things went downhill pretty quickly. I struggled to get myself dressed and all I wanted to do was fall asleep in the chair or just go back to bed. What in the world was going on?
As my doctor said this afternoon, “THIS is what chemo fatigue looks like.” I remember them warning me that around day 5-7 (we are on day 7), that I would start to feel the effects of chemo, and they were SPOT ON. To be honest, my idea of chemo has been pretty skewed. I always thought that when one was done with chemo, that things were on the upswing. I didn’t know that after the treatments is when they start to feel the effects. I am still waiting on one more treatment, but we are waiting for my liver counts to regulate just a bit before doing so. There isn’t a huge rush, but when they decided to postpone it yet again to tomorrow, I wasn’t sad about it! Like the doctor said, hopefully they can give me a quiet night of sleep and that tomorrow will be a new day. But to hear that this is normal and that this means the chemo is working in my body, was encouraging. Now hopefully God’s using it to kill the leukemia too…not just everything else in the body :).
I am learnING (haven’t gotten there yet), that this is a process that literally will need to be taken one hour at a time. One hour I won’t be able to open my eyelids to have my PICC line meds exchanged, but the next I could be sitting up, talking with the doctor. The mind and body sure are powerful! But not more powerful than our God.
Never saw today coming in the way it has, so abruptly, but now it’s time to hang on for the ride. I pray that in this next week or two, I can just take it one hour at a time, if that’s what it takes to get through this.
As my cleaning man John said, “Kristin, outside of these 4 walls, you never know what’s being reflected out.” And that’s my prayer. That in some way, this journey will inspire someone else’s faith and spur them on to make His name known through their story. Through chemo fatigue or whatever journey God has you on, let’s come together and look for ways to be shining lights for Him!
