F.E.C.

F.E.C. (Fluorouracil, Epirubicin, Cyclophosphamide) sounds evil and hard on your body.  It has taken me three full days of doing nothing to start to feel better.  Now I can understand why people don't want to go back for more after 21 days.  Nothing like starting to feel normal just to get knocked back down again.  The good thing is that they have figured out how to battle the nausea, so I was not the typical picture of a chemo patient hugging the toilet.  They gave me three anti-nausea medications and steroids via IV before the three different chemo drugs so there is no waiting period before they take effect.  They give you Ativan to battle the nausea but also to help relax you and not make you so nervous, and that is a good thing.  The bad thing about all of these drugs is that they have the combined effect of turning your brain to mush.  My brain is only now starting to recover and it still feels like I'm in a cloud.  I wonder if my chemo brain will get worse over time, or if I will get used to it and my brain will remain permanently muddled.  I hope it starts to recover when I'm finished with all of this, if not there are a lot of years ahead to live in a fog.  The drugs also burned off my tastebuds so not only do I have a drastically reduced appetite, eating is a chore because it tastes like nothing; texture is more important than taste.  My hair has been growing back but I expect it all to fall out again.  It won't be very dramatic this time, hard to tell when the fuzz falls out.  I also have some leftover symptoms from the Pacitaxel, mainly that my fingernails have very dark bruises on them and they hurt.  But that should fade with time.  I keep getting stronger everyday and plan on doing the triathlon in a week.