Painful Feet – As I know I would be having to slow down; I didn’t want to completely stop. So, I decided at the very beginning that I would walk to the hospital for all my appointments when I feel I can. I am very lucky that my hospital is only 1.5 miles from my house, so a nice 25-minute walk for me each way.
Due to me having chemo every Friday, I must have my covid test every Wednesday and blood test every Thursday, so I started doing a lot more walking. However, on Thursday, I walked to the hospital, and the top of my left foot was hurting, and it was as if my shoelaces have been tied up too tightly, and they were bruising the top of my foot. Everything that starts hurting, I am going to think it now has something to do with cancer! I coughed the other day and that was it – I’ve now got lung cancer! – I don’t, but that is just how your brain goes when going through this! This pain carried on for a few days constantly but then after a few days would disappear and come back at night-time, or when I am doing nothing. I may have neuropathy, which is where the nerve endings in your feet and hands can dye, or just become painful, but because it was not constantly painful, nor was it spreading, the Doctors were happy that if it is not hindering me in any way, I could take paracetamol for any pain if I needed to. I hadn’t taken any medication for it as it wasn’t that painful, it was just more annoying than anything. At the same time as this happened, my middle toe on my right foot also had a strange feeling. It was like someone had tied an elastic band around it a left it there for a few days. Again, this could be a sign of Neuropathy, but nothing needed to be done about it as it also went away.
Insomnia
After the second chemo session, my sleep had become non-existent. I was tired during the day but couldn’t sleep – I think this is because I have huge FOMO! (Fear of Missing Out)! Even though I know nothing is going on, I am sitting at home watching TV – I don’t want to sleep. I hate the feeling of wasting a day and I do not want to mope around in bed all day. So, throughout the day even though I felt tired, I didn’t want to sleep, I wanted to do quizzes, jigsaw puzzles, etc. When it came to bedtime, I would go to sleep quickly, normally about midnight after an hour of rolling around, but then I would wake up at 2 am and couldn’t go back to bed, or on another night, I couldn’t fall asleep until 5 am, but then woke up at 7.30 and couldn’t go back to sleep. I decided that I wasn’t able to get this sleep right on my own, so my doctor did prescribe me some sleeping tablets, and they work like a dream! I take them an hour before I want to be asleep, and literally within the hour, whatever I am doing, I physically must stop! Normally I would fight through tiredness, but not with these! So, I will actually get into bed at 10 pm, be asleep by 11 pm, and be up and awake by 6.30/7 am and I feel great. It feels like I have had a full sleep which is brilliant! There are some days when I still will wake up super early like 3 am, but at least now I am getting to sleep! The days I wake up early, I get out of bed, write my blog, and then if I feel tired, I will go back to bed!