Side Effects Suck

When Joe started chemo a few weeks ago, they gave us a binder full of reading material on his treatments. It's basically the cancer patients equivalent of "What to Expect When You Are Expecting" .........but not nearly as exciting. Probably 85% of the material in this binder talks about the side effects of chemotherapy. We have all heard about these dreaded side effects ....nausea, hair loss, fatigue, etc, but after reading through the book we were made aware of so many other things (difficulty breathing, mouth sores, highly susceptible to infections, and on and on). Not going to lie...some of it is pretty scary.

Three weeks into his chemo regimen, Joe had yet to experience any of these side effects. We started to think that maybe he would get lucky and not have any at all, but unfortunately we must have jinxed him, because last week the side effects caught up with him. It has primarily been the nausea which is giving him the most trouble. He has since gotten a prescription for anti-nausea medicine that helps, but some days are still pretty sucky. His Doctors have been very adamant about him maintaining his weight, but that is difficult to do when your lunch consists of a pain pill and an anti-nausea pill :(

There is one other side effect that Joe just can't seem to shake....hiccups. After consulting with Dr. Google, we confirmed that this is a pretty common side effect. Apparently chemo has a sense of humor! (Seriously he is sitting next to me on the couch hiccuping away....I can't help but laugh!)

By the way, have I mentioned that the chemo regimen that he is on is called 5-FU. Kind of ironic right?

Even though the chemo totally sucks and is getting harder on Joe, we think/hope it is getting even harder on the cancer. Joe is happy to pop another anti-nausea pill,  and hold his breath for 30 seconds to try and rid himself of these hiccups, if this is what it will take to beat this.

- Jess