I wake up in the morning and my hands are swollen, they hurt to even close them. I cringe as I pry open my medicine, which is a pain I never thought I would face. I have cracks deep in my toes that I have to apply care to each night, I have skin peeling off my feet. My hands look like I have had my hands stuck in a water basin all day…absolute prunes. My digestive system is all out of whack, not knowing up from down.
This is what I face each day with my current chemo pills. All while trying to keep a house organized, chasing after my two young girls, and working from home. I put on a happy face because I have to. Most days I am happy, despite the chemo’s side effects…they are more annoying than anything. They truly do not even compare to what I went through this past summer with the “red devil” coursing through my veins. Regardless, I have to remind myself how important self-care is. No one is going to take care of me, like I need to take care of me.
Each night I cake my feet in thick lotion to be soaked up during the night to keep the creases in my feet from cracking. I lotion my hands and rub DiGize on my belly to help avoid terrible stomach aches in the middle of the night. I try to soak my feet in Epsom salt, wear socks as often as I can to avoid scraping them. In addition to my medicine, I take my vitamins each day to help support my system. Sulfurzyme is one that greatly benefits my hair, skin and nails, which are being attacked by side effects right now. Thankfully this go around on chemo, my hair did not fall out.
Over the past year I have faced numerous amounts of medications with a plethora of side effects from my breast cancer diagnosis, which I have learned to manage in different homeopathic ways. It was important to me to keep track of my side effects, emotions, etc. so I was able to track my health and report back to my oncologist, nutritionist, and for my own sake to know where my body was each week.
I am excited to announce that I have been asked to join Health Storylines as one of their self-care ambassadors. With this being said, I look forward to continuing to share my story and give other warriors hope, peace, concrete information about this battle. The app with Health Storylines truly helps keep cancer warriors accountable for their meds…using the Medication Tracker was particularly helpful for me…helps keep track of moods, side effects, a journaling aspect to keep notes, etc. Incredibly helpful when #chemobrain is such a real thing. I remember walking into my doctor office in the beginning and fully relying on these notes or my husband’s great memory because I would just forget everything I knew I wanted to cover in my appointment.
I am so thankful for technology in this way to help us warriors on the battlefield. There is so much to keep up with and it is difficult to do it alone. I love that more companies, foundations, and organizations are shedding more light on support and how warriors facing any diagnosis do not have to forego the path alone. There are so many tools to help ease the overwhelming information coming at us every day. SO MUCH to keep up with. Please sign up for Health Storylines using the link below and download this useful app! https://bestillandsmile.healthstorylines.com/app/#/regsiter
I hope all of you who are battling will appreciate this tool and take advantage of it!