Chemo is boring. I was expecting more. More drama, more symptoms during it, for the people getting treatment besides me to look sicker. Just more. I’ve officially had five Chemo’s now and, well, Chemo day is a bit of a snoozefest.
It’s the days after that bring the not-so-fun. Here is my fun list of ways to tell if you are undergoing Chemo (as if the five hours hooked to an IV getting tons of poison injected into your body wasn’t telling enough). What fun things would you add to the list?
You might be undergoing chemo if….
- You redefine biker chic with your stylish chemo beanie.
- Four-letter words are no longer the dirty ones. Three-letter ones like ANC, WBC, RBC, MCV, and MCH are.
- Eighteen hours a day is your optimal amount of sleep. And you can fall asleep standing up, in the shower and at the dinner table (mid-sentence into a pile of spaghetti).
- You’re pretty sure you know what swallowing a taser feels like. (But you are way too smart to actually DO this to compare mouth sores to swallowing a taser.)
- Orange juice and green olives is your favorite food combination – because the crazy appetite from steroids combined with the weird taste issues from chemo make for very interesting bedfellows. Trust me, you will regret consuming this combo EVERY time.
- You entertain fantasies of sawing your legs off from the hip down, just to see if it’s less painful that way.
- You sleep with post-its on your face, your mirror and your fridge, because you ask the same question three times in ten minutes and still forget the answer. Chemo brain is REAL. And the reason I keep consuming OJ and green olives is that I forget how the gross the combo is every time.
- You have sub-classified the types of vomiting, because one word just doesn’t give you the layer of nuance you need to describe how your day went. And you TALK about vomit and poo. Because body fluids are a big part of your life, and sharing your day is an important way of connecting with others, right?
- Attempting a BM feels like a feat of bravery worthy of a Congressional Medal of Honor.
- You take a picture of your poo when you finally manage to go, because dammit, it’s worth celebrating!
Cancer Ever After 
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