Saturday, April 15, 2017

April 15, 2017 - Last Chemo Treatment Subsiding - New Problem

In my last post I was saying that I was at a physical low, due to the accumulative effects of 6 treatments of chemo.  Well, I am getting back to normal with one exception.  One day last week I looked down and my ankles had disappeared!  They had swollen, as had my legs to some extent.  I've never had this so I started research and discovered that this could be due to a blockage (not in my case since both lower legs were swollen), to a heart problem, due to some vitamin deficiency, or (last) something in the diet.    I took magnesium pills and raised my legs above my heart and by morning the swelling had gone down about 90%.  Then it came back within hours.  I called my doctor and he said he would prescribe a diuretic.  He was less concerned because the swelling was in both feet and legs and I had no redness.  Kathe wondered if it might be a new protein powder that we started around the time of the swelling.  She convinced me not to take the diuretic while we went back to the old protein powder.  So far the swelling is much less, although it hasn't gone away completely.  Like most of the other things that have hit me, this one is not debilitating at all--just annoying.  I like seeing my ankles.

With chemo and hormone blocking it is a lot of little symptoms.  The good news is that they are little symptoms, not big ones.

Now, I'd like to see some hair growth!

Les