Tingly fingers, stabbing toes,
Wobbly legs and bloody nose.
Cold drinks cause my throat to close.
It could be worse.

Can’t touch cold, I’ll get a zap,
Electric shocks when touching taps.
The fridge and freezer, nasty traps.
It could be worse.

Meals have weird, metallic taste,
The food I hate I now embrace,
Except for peas, I will not grace.
It could be worse.

No iced beer or chilled white wine,
No cold vodka with some lime.
Lukewarm lager is a crime.
It could be worse.

Raging furnace through my core,
Overheating, clammy pores.
Seems, it’s early menopause.
It could be worse.

Always tired, feeling wan,
Blurry eyes, this isn’t fun.
Have no choice, it must be done.
It could’ve been much, much worse.

My Side Effects

Apart from the bloody nose, tingly feet and menopause symptoms, everything else was only whilst having chemo, so effectively 3 days in every fortnight. These were my side effects.

Electric Shocks

Touching anything cold would give me an electric shock. Handles, plates, cutlery, glassware, zips, buttons, taps. Have you tried washing your hands without touching the taps?

All my cutlery had to be soaked in hot water before I could handle them. I couldn’t touch plates unless they had been warmed or glassware unless they had something hot in them.

My Nemesis

The fridge and freezer were an absolute no-no. There was no way on earth that I could put my hands in, let alone touch, anything in there.

Food and Drink

Drinking during chemo days was a challenge. My temperature of choice has always been a cold drink. I’m not a tea or coffee lover, so, hot chocolate became my only option. Food also started to have a metallic tang. My jaw would go into spasm at the first bite on either side. Strangely I started to crave things that I generally didn’t like, for example fish, and especially salmon, which up until then I didn’t care for. I discussed this with a fellow patient who had the same thing but in reverse. She was a fish eater but was wanting meat. We concluded that our bodies were craving what it felt was lacking in our diet.  

Tingles and Jelly

My fingers would constantly tingle as would my feet. During my 3^rd round of chemo, my legs started to feel like jelly, to the point that I could not climb the stairs. It would be a crawl on hands and knees going up, and a sit on my bum going down.

The Hair

My hair did start to thin but I didn’t lose it. Unfortunately, I have fine hair so I just kept it short, and my lovely hairdresser Hannah did wonders with what I had.

Cold Air

The absolute worst by far was cold air. My throat would immediately close, I couldn’t breathe and felt I was going to die. This happened twice when I inadvertently sucked in cold air during the winter months. As you can imagine, I became paranoid about going out even on non-chemo days.