Chemotherapy begins for Dad.

I'm planning on keeping what may be boring notes to some.  But I feel a slight bit of reassurance as I keep some sort of record of Dad's chemotherapy experience.  Might be helpful for someone else out there who doesn't have a clue about what to expect either.

4/25/12 - Wednesday was Dad's first day of chemo.  He was there from early morning until late afternoon.  I noticed nothing different in the way he looked or behaved.  When asked, he said he felt okay.  Thursday was the second round, which went much more quickly, as he and Mom were only gone for a few hours.  Same thing, no noticeable difference in the way he typically feels.  Saturday he did mention that he was experiencing some constipation, which the doctor warned him he may experience.  He will go for the next treatment in a little less than a month.  He's been outside monkeying around on the mower, though the grass is not growing much yet - still too darn cold and dismal for that.  Also been weeding flower beds and doing some pot planting (No, not marijuana - planting in pots!)  He also quit his blood pressure pills a few days before beginning chemo.  I think he's losing that "drunken walk", or ataxia, which (and I'm not going to say I told you so...) appeared very shortly after starting a couple different meds, including the blood pressure pill.  Fortunately his pressure was down when the doctor checked.

As for myself, I will be calling my doctor for an annual exam.  I also want to ask her what she thinks of my itchy, dry, red neck skin.  It's gotten flushed fairly frequently over the past year or so, but the itchy dryness is new as of the past couple of weeks.  I haven't had any recent changes in diet, body/face products, laundry detergents or, well, what else is there?  I mentioned it on a chat board that I enjoy and someone commented that it made them think of a thyroid problem.  So, of course, I had to go online and research that a little.  Now I'm thinking maybe it's hypothyroidism.  Though I have symptoms akin to both that and hyperthyroidism.  Whatever.  I suppose my doctor will think I sound like a hypochondriac, ha ha ha.

Diet-wise I veered off course yesterday.  But it was my birthday!  Again, I blame the establishments for my betrayal of myself.  Caribou Coffee emailed me a coupon for a free medium drink of choice.  Damn them.  Then stinkin' Famous Dave's got in on it and emailed me a coupon for Buy1Get1 meal, which J (the husb) thought sounded real good.  So had that for lunch.  You know the bbq sauce on the ribs alone would have done me in.  I did control myself a tiny bit and only ate half of the corn muffin.  Plus I had water instead of a soda!  All that was in vain, however, once we got home and J agreed that a shake made with Whoppers candy did sound good, indeed.  Oh, I forgot that A made some double chocolate cookies, too.  I couldn't offend her and not eat one... or two.