The effects of chemo were about the same this time around. While Karen still had some nausea, it has been much better managed this time around. Certain strong smells still make her nauseous, but she was able to eat much better. She had a migraine again but she's no stranger to migraines and once every two weeks doesn't seem unbearable. Her cold sensitivity was much worse. She wasn't able to drink anything that wasn't warmed for about a week after her pump was removed, even room temperature liquids were too cold. She's also been getting canker sores in her mouth since she started chemo. However, since that can happen from time to time, she didn't give it a second thought until it persisted into her second treatment.
So on Monday we saw the physician working with Karen at Arizona Oncology. After mentioning the canker sores, the doctor confirmed that it's probably a side effect of the chemotherapy, and she wrote a prescription for a mouthwash. It's a big mix of things, but is mostly just Benadryl. The directions say to rinse with it and then swallow. Karen's also been fighting an upper respiratory infection of some sort for over a week. They had given her antibiotics to make sure it didn't turn into anything worse, but her nightly fevers had gone up to 100.1° F and that concerned the doctor enough to postpone chemo a few days. We rescheduled for Wednesday, with pump removal on Friday.
