This past week has not been very fun. It has taken longer for me to feel ‘normal’ again. Typically it was around Day 5 when I would feel better – but not this time. Yesterday was Day 7 and I still felt like garbage.
The hardest part is dealing with the different “crappy-feeling” stages as they come. You can’t just do the same 'home remedies' for the whole time you feel ill – it just doesn’t work. First there is nausea, hot/cold flashes, headaches, tiredness. Then there comes just a feeling of being “off”. And until this last time, that was it. It would end around the middle of Day 5 and it was like something just snapped and all of a sudden, I felt more like myself.
This time, in addition to the symptoms above, I also had massive muscle aches and intense sinus pain. These were side-effects of the injections I have to take in order to stimulate my white cells to start growing. On Sunday evening (Day 5) I all of a sudden started to feel like I had gone to the gym 4 times that day and only worked out my upper body (not untypical of many Kelowna men ;) ). I was so sore and honestly, I had done nothing to cause the aches. By Monday (Day 6) they had disappeared but in their place was this intense pain/pressure/cold feeling deep inside my sinus. It was like someone was taking an ice-pick and jamming it through the bridge of my nose behind where the bones are.
It was awful. I was super hot due to the weather, but could not go near air conditioning as it made my head/nose want to explode. Nothing seemed to make the pain go away – Tylenol helped a bit, but it was still there. And it lasted two days.
You don’t really realize how much pain affects your mood and attitude until it’s gone. Yesterday I was tired, grumpy, bored, snappy, found it hard to concentrate, was freezing, then boiling, and really got irritated quickly. Then as if by overnight magic, the pain went away and today I woke up feeling terrific. No seriously, terrific. Let’s capitalize that T – Terrific!
I went to work and got down to business. I was so excited to be there and doing work. I smiled and said hello to everyone in the office and asked how they were doing. I had lunch with two great friends and couldn’t stop smiling. I decided to leave around 430pm and I did not once get mad at traffic! I walked in the door at home and was humming to myself...HUMMING! I was joking with myself as I got ready to go to my first session of the run clinic. The difference is outstanding.
I am about to head out the door for my run clinic. Yesterday I was worried, scared, nervous, not wanting to go. Today those feelings are still there a little bit, but at least I am smiling and actually kind of excited to see what this will bring. I am sure I will feel awful after the run, but that will only be because I am in such bad shape ;) And I still can’t stop smiling. Terrific :)
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