chemo
I’ve been reflecting on my experience with chemotherapy. I realize not many of you have had experience with chemo and don’t know what it is like to receive chemotherapy. I can only speak for myself, but I wanted to give you some more insight into what receiving chemotherapy was like for me.
My brother made a video of various clips from the three times he went to chemo with me and took care of me afterwards. Click the "chemo video" for the link to the video. I think this video does a good job at providing more insight. The video begins with audio of me and my sister laughing while she was trying to crack my back. As the video progresses, there is more silence. This audio does a good job portraying some of the joy and humor I felt and experienced during chemo as well as a lot of the silence, sadness, and pain. Also accurate to the video, the more chemo I received, the more sadness and pain and fatigue I experienced. At the beginning, when I was first receiving chemo, I felt more positive and upbeat and energized. The video also shows family members who came to be with me and take care of me throughout the four months of chemotherapy. My family helped me pay bills, water my plants, feed me, and so much more.
We went on walks and tried to spend time outside as much as possible. I slept a lot. I had weird cravings (fritos, fruit snacks, pink lemonade, lemonheads). I froze my head in the hopes of keeping my hair, or at least enabling it to grow back as fast as possible. I ate a lot of frozen fruit in the hopes of preventing mouth sores. I froze my hands and feet in the hopes of preventing neuropathy. I got stuck in the arm over and over. Just as the video has many slow, still moments – I had many slow, still moments. As hard as receiving chemo was, there were still beautiful moments. The beauty of a blue sky, clouds, flowers, a wind chime.
Cheers to my brother for taking care of me, capturing moments, and putting this video together! And cheers to being done with chemo!
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