After having ice cream last night, I awoke in the middle of the night with what I remember thrush feeling like. I checked my tongue around 2:30 a.m. and noticed it seemed to have a white coating but not the thick coating that I remember from 5 years ago. This concerns me. Five years ago, it took until the 4th or 5th chemo round for my immune system to be depleted enough for thrush to take hold. I'm concerned because I'm there before the first round is finished. Anyway, I went back to sleep after taking a prochlorperazine (anti-nausea pill) and slept through until 7:30 this morning. I awoke feeling refreshed and ready to get going on my day.
My mouth felt a little better and when I checked it after breakfast and showering, it seemed to be improved. Hmmmm.....do I call the nurse, call my family doctor or what? I chose to call the oncology nurse at the Cancer Clinic. I was advised to start rinsing with a solution of 4 cups of water, 1 tsp. salt and 1 tsp. baking soda. I'm to keep this at room temperature and rinse my mouth 4 times a day. And to make a fresh batch every day. Apparently, the baking soda will help keep the PH balanced in my mouth.
I had a very productive day today. Five years ago, I had a general plan for my funeral in place but not any details. This time around, I'm making sure the details are also in place so my hubby will never have to deal with that. Having said this, it does not mean that I am giving up. No way!!! But you never know and I want to make life easier for my family if something terrible happens. Meanwhile, I'm still fighting and kicking all the way....at least this week. So I made some contacts with friends and am in the process of setting some things in motion. In addition to calling the nurse, as mentioned in the previous paragraph, I needed to make an appointment with my pharmacy's pharmacist. I needed to do this in preparation for my first appointment with the stem cell doctor coming up in September. I made the appointment to meet the pharmacist tonight. We went over my current prescriptions and updated some of the supplements (the herbal tea my friend gave me, mouth sprays, etc.) that I'm now taking or using. Tomorrow, I have to contact my family doctor regarding the thrush question.
In addition, today I was clear headed enough to handle some banking and to get things organized for grocery shopping which will take place tomorrow. Who would have thought that I would have trouble keeping organized?! The stress of this treatment, the diagnosis and the flurry of appointments makes it difficult to keep things straight. At least for me.
Not only was I productive, I managed to have time to do some knitting on my afghan project and to all do some reading outdoors in the late afternoon. What an enjoyable afternoon it was. The weather was warm but not too warm. The birds were busy at our bird feeder but so was the squirrel who was stealing the bird seed. I enjoyed the time on the patio with my book, a cup of tea and my cat.
As a reward for such a great day, hubby and I treated ourselves to some flavoured popcorn from the mall and went home to eat it while we watched the Toronto Blue Jays play the Tampa Bay Devil Rays on television.
Here's hoping tomorrow is another good day. Today I almost felt "normal" and "healthy".
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