Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about what comes with cancer treatment – and what most people would never imagine life is like when going through this. It’s not just the medication, the treatment, the side-effects, the seemingly endless appointments – it’s the ‘life stuff’ too. It’s remarkable how your life needs to adjust in small ways to make it easier to get through everything.
For example, my purse. As I near the end of my chemo ‘stuff’ (ie recovering from the drugs, finally starting to feel better, etc), I realized that I soon will be able to de-clutter my purse of all the items currently in there to help me through this first part.
My purse is nothing out of the ordinary from the outside – medium sized black bag with a few zippers. But what’s inside definitely differs from that of most women my age.
Here’s a list of what is (or was) in my purse that is related to my cancer treatment:
1. Tissues and Q-tips – my eyes will not stop watering so I need to have tissues or q-tips on hand to wipe away the wetness. Eyelashes truly do help your eyes, and not having them really makes the watery moments a lot more messy!
2. Thermometer – During this time, I cannot get sick. So if I even feel a little bit “off” I’m supposed to take my temperature and ensure that I am between 36-38 degrees C. If I were to get over 38 degrees, I need to go immediately to the emergency room. Which leads me to item #3…
3. Emergency Room note – I’ve had to carry around a note with instructions from the cancer agency in case I ended up in the emergency room. It explains to the staff there what to do with me in case of an emergency, which drugs I am on, and who to contact if there are problems.
4. Tums – the ol’ stomach just does not handle things as well as it had. The stomach lining and its cells have been damaged by the chemo, and thus make my tummy a lot rough at times.
5. Plastic bags – For my first set of chemo drugs I carried around a few ziplock bags and a black plastic bag in my purse. Why, you ask? Well in case I got sick, I could puke in the ziplock bag so it wouldn’t leak out, then put that in the black plastic bag so it would be discreet until I found a trash can.
6. Plastic gloves – in case of the situation in #5, plastic gloves were on hand so that if someone was helping me, they would be protected. Apparently chemo puke can be toxic to other people if they get any on them.
7. Eyebrow pencil – drawn-on eyebrows don’t last all day like real eyebrows
8. Sanitary wipes – because people are constantly sick and touching things with their yucky germy hands!
9. Hand sanitizer – see #8
10. Tylenol – not Advil, not ibuprofen, not aspirin - Tylenol only. Apparently the other pain relievers can interfere with my treatment
11. Throat lozenges – but not just any throat lozenges – no sour, citrus, minty flavours as my taste buds cannot handle it. You try finding lozenges without ANY of those…geesh!
12. Cuticle cream – my nails are affected by the chemo so I need to ensure they are constantly moisturized so they don’t peel, crack, or become otherwise irritated or infected
13. Snack – I have a very hard time distinguishing when I am hungry. In fact, I think my hunger sensation has taken a bit of a vacation for the moment. But sometimes when I start to feel really tired and drained, it is my body needing nutrition. Having something on the go helps me until I am able to get home and make something. It often staves off the nauseous feelings as well.
14. Water – getting dehydrated is not in my best interest…well, it’s not really in anyone’s best interest! But having water in my purse also helps with the common side effect of dry mouth - at least until I can get home or somewhere to get more liquid.
15. My book – a little book that I keep track of my doctor’s information, appointment information I have, phone numbers for various places, instructions on what I need to do/eat/etc. I get called all the time about new instructions from the docs, new appointments, referrals to other services, etc. I need a place to track everything while out and about.
I am definitely looking forward to getting rid of a lot of these items and lightening up the purse! Soon I will need it to be lighter anyways – after surgery I am not supposed to lift more than 10lbs! ;)
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