January 14, 2011

Maybe it's the cumulative effect of chemo that they talk about that has made me queasy for the past few days, but on Wednesday and Thursday of this week, I ate something just about every hour because I would feel sick to my stomach if I got too hungry. By the end of the day, I would be so full that I would feel even sicker until I laid down to go to sleep. And then it would start all over the next day.

Today I went to Walgreens and bought some "Sea Bands" which are little wrist thingies that have a plastic ball thingy (I like that word) that presses between the two tendons on the inner side of the wrist. The bands sit about an inch and a half down from the crease where the hand meets the wrist, and apparently they work like acupuncture.

All I know is that they have worked for me today! Some people might say it's all in my head, but that's okay with me. If my head is saying I'm not nauseated, the rest of me is believing it! It will be interesting to see if these work on big time nausea or if they are just effective for general queasiness. And yes, I now categorize nausea in levels that only the frequently sick would understand.

And I'm a little frustrated that there isn't a list of cancer treatment "helps" somewhere such as using these little "Sea Bands". I don't think it's right to figure this out halfway through chemo when I could have been using these all along. Maybe I'm just crazy, but I like to know about things that might be of help. So what other fun things are out there to be discovered on this journey?

I've seen lists of medications and foods, but I've not come across a list called, "You might want to try this". There have been warnings and cautionary statements with every medication or procedure I've had, and most of them have scared the crap out of me. And I know the doctor's office can't endorse every product out there or guarantee that certain things will work, but it makes me want to create a CTSS or "Cancer Treatment Survival Sheet" to pass out at the door for folks who have no idea what to do when they feel a certain way--just a list of suggestions from someone who has walked the path before them and knows how to smooth some of the bumps in the road.

I feel as if I'm on a bumpy, less-traveled road much like the one in Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken". I've never been one to take the easy route just to get something done, and I don't mind working hard to get things done. However, given a little time, I have always been one to figure out how to make things easier along the way. If I can make it easier for even one person, it's worth what I'm going through. That's what I have to keep telling myself.