It's been a rough week

This week has been the hardest yet. I've been battling with chemo and radiation induced diarrhea and constipation using a colon that has been battered and can't cope with either. I won't go into gory details but I will say that it has been the worst week of my life as far as trips to the bathroom are concerned. In other news, I got an awesome mouthwash prescription from my doctor that seems to have taken care of the mouth sores. But, I have a new symptom this week: Pain in my hands and feet. Its not terrible, it just gets bad when I stand for too long or hold something heavy in my hands. Apparently this is one of the many fun side effects of this particular chemo.

One of the secret weapons of this cancer battle has been a weekly reiki treatment (thanks Vicky!). Its not a medically proven healing technique but it sure makes me feel better and is one of the highlights of my week.

Also this week I attended my first group session for people with G.I. cancer. I was the youngest in the class by half (remember 9/10 colorectal cancer cases occur in people over 50). There were 5 of us at the session (2 no-shows) and it was a great time. We are all in various stages of treatment so it was a good opportunity to trade stories/notes on treatments, surgeries, side effects and remedies. I am looking forward to my next session on Thursday.

Here are some interesting statistics from the week:

• radiation treatments done: 19
• radiation treatments left: 6
• final radiation treatment date: November 18
• prescriptions filled this week: 3
• doctors seen this week: 2
• pounds lost to date: ~15
• pounds lost this week: ~4
• favourite piece of cancer fighting gear: sitz bath (if you really want to know click here)