At home with Mrs Grumpypants

I've started writing several posts since my last one, but never finished them or got around to posting them. I've been a pretty grumpy Sarah for the last week or so - an epic combination of chemo tiredness, a massive mouth ulcer and PMS.

The tiredness has not been helped by the builders (we live on an under construction housing estate) who have come along to fix up all the pavements along the road outside my house. Which is great because the pavements were a mess, but it's bad because they start with the pneumatic drill and circular saw at 8:30 and finish about 5 - although the last few days they've packed up earlier. This doesn't make being in the house very restful, unless I close all the doors and windows and switch the TV up loud - which again is not very restful. I managed to have lie in this morning though, so I'm feeling a little less tired today.



The mouth ulcer has really been getting me down - it's a common side effect from the chemo, and I used to suffer from them a lot as a kid. This one is just inside my bottom lip and about half a centimetre across, it's been there about a week now and just won't heal - it's appearance coinciding nicely with the low point for my white blood cells. It hurts to eat and to talk and generally has made be very grumpy.

I've also been having some bad vein pain over the last week or so. It started out as a sore elbow (I thought I'd tweaked a ligament), but the pain began to spread all down my arm and up to my shoulder. It's apparently quite a common side effect of the chemo, and is another that can get progressivly worse over the course of treatments. It seems to be the Epirubicin that causes it (the same one that causes necrosis if it goes outside of the vein) - it may be that there wasn't enough saline going through at the same time it was being injected. Thankfully in the last day or so it has got a bit better - its still sore around my elbow and wrist  - as it hardens the veins I suppose it makes sense that it hurts more around the joints. I also got in trouble because I didn't ring the nurse as soon as I knew it was an issue - Simon had to keep pestering me to speak to them but I didn't want to bother the nurses with what might have been a stupid question. Simon quite rightly pointed out that they're there in part to answer the "stupid questions" to stop you worrying.

I have managed to do a few useful things though - in particular I've hired a cleaner to come once a week, which will help a lot. Also, the lady is lovely and very easy to chat to. I've been continuing to make bread and have baked some nice cakes as well. I had a visit a few days ago from my friend Sam, and we walked to the pub for lunch and generally had a good natter which helped to cheer me up. It surprises me how doing little things like that can tire me out though - yesterday I was pretty much wiped out and feeling very low. I'm feeling a bit cheerier today.