I am at the one week mark for taking the chemo and so far, I have been doing pretty well. Minimal side effects from the chemo … barring one possible exception. I have a head cold.

Last Thursday I saw my orthopedist because I had some fluid on the knee and my doctor wanted an X-ray. Unfortunately, the X-ray technician had an emergency which was far more important than my knee, so the orthopedist gave me a shot to help minimize the pain and sent me on my way with an appointment for tomorrow to have the X-ray. That night I started feeling a bit stuffy, but since our weather has been up and down like a yo-yo, I thought it might be that as well. But as I thought I might have picked up some sort of bug while in the waiting room, despite wearing two surgical masks for protection, I took preventive measures. Things started clearing and two days ago, I thought I had it licked.

Not the case. Yesterday, it fully bloomed and I have a head full of snot, a frog for a voice, and have sneezed more in the past two days that I usually do in six months. I called my oncologist to let her know the situation and have also talked with the pharmacist for my chemo meds. The oncologist told me to stop taking the medication today and tomorrow and to call her before taking on Friday. We’re trying to get me cleared up.

Why would she have me stop the chemo? Well, one of the side affects of this particular chemo is the potential for getting colds. So my already bad immune system is made a little worse by the medication I’m taking to help my bad immune system. Or it feels that way at any rate. I am sure this is just a little blip on my road to kicking cancer’s butt; however, we do have to take the right precautions and not allow the cold to get out of control.

I always feel a little silly calling a doctor because my head is stuffed up and I have a runny nose because colds happen and just have to run their course, right? Except in my case, now, we cannot allow the small things to get out of control. I don’t have any resources to fight off anything on my own. So what normally is something that makes me feel lousy, but I usually just power through, has me in bed and is keeping me there to give my body the best possible chance of fighting this thing off before any infection develops.

The picture at the top is how my head feels. All foggy and sluggish, and somewhat murky. Things will get better. But for now I must rest.