Thursday, November 10, 2011

purple hands and feet and chemo brain

Between the hand-foot syndrome and the fact that Paul had a bad case of dehydration when he couldn't eat, the oncologist has reduced his Xeloda from 3,000mg (6 pills a day) down to 2,500 mg (5 pills a day)to see if this helps ease the symptoms. Paul wasn't too happy about the reduction since he wants to do the most to try and kill all of the cancer and sees this as a setback but given all of the weight loss that he has had over the last 2 months, a reduction was in order anyways as the dose is based on your height and weight. It doesn't help that when you are on chemo, you also develop what is known as "chemo brain." Basically, you forget things often and quickly which is not helping matters since Paul has to be applying lotion 4-6 times a day every day to help with his hands and feet. I've lectured him. The oncologist has lectured him. The nurse practioner has lectured him. The chemo nurse has lectured him. Yet, he forgets to do this on a daily basis and, of course, blames chemo brain. As I always tease him, I don't know which is worse - the pre-chemo Hornby brain or the new Hornby chemo brain. Time will tell.

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