Let's complain about side effects! Yay!
Starting with the most annoying...
Dry Erbitux Skin. Around my eyes. It's red and ouchy. I have lotion for it, but meh. It's still there.
My mouth hurts. Things I like to eat hurt me. I have magic mouth wash for it, but meh. Still there!
Hair falling out. This one probably makes me the most sad and also the one I feel the most silly being upset about. There could be a lot worse things than losing some hair. I've always loved my hair though.
Cracking skin on my fingers. The good news on this is that I'm down to three. Whoops, I found another one. As soon as I get them healed, more show up. :(
Itchy butt wound area. Yeah, still dealing with that pesky butt wound. Is it healing? I don't know! It's just there, it gets packed with gauze once a day, and it gets Erbitux irritated from time to time. I never thought we'd be buying diaper cream after the whole baby stage.
All over my body, my skin is dry, dry, dry.
Chemo brain? Check.
My appetite is back though! Except everything I eat hurts my mouth! :(
I'm feeling a little cranky today about all this nonsense, in case it's hard to tell. I try not to let it all get to me, but it's weary-ing. I feel a little bad complaining because overall, chemo isn't too bad for me. I know it's awful for others. I know other people who are in much worse situations than I am. But at the same time, my feelings should be okay too.
So here's to my feelings and your feelings and everyone's feelings.
Hi Sheri - I found you through the colon club and have been following your blog for a bit. I just wanted to say my husband has been dealing with the skin issues from the Erbitux too. We recently found these little things called "Finger cots" - and well...I'll just say it...they look like condoms for your fingers. Anyway, he puts a bunch of Aquafor on the finger tip, then slides the little finger cover over it. He's done that the last several nigths and he's finally getting a little relief. Some of his cracks are VERY deep and VERY painful. He's also got the cracks on the bottoms of his feet making him feel like he's walking on glass sometimes. So...just wanted to post with this little bit of info in case it's helpful to you. So sorry you're having to deal with all this. It stinks!
ReplyDeleteJulia
Finger Cots!!! That's a great idea!!!!! Thank you so much, I'm going to have to get some of those. I've been using lotion, but I also have little kids so I'm constantly washing my hands. I wear rubber gloves when cleaning as much as I can. This is seriously a great idea.
ReplyDeleteNow if I could find something like that to coat the inside of my mouth...hahahaha.
Anonymous was me . . . :-)
ReplyDelete