A Diet to Die For! Breast Cancer in Canada.

Honestly, I really think my immune system has left for a vacation, and forgot to take me with it. I also would have liked someone to spread some fairy dust on me so I could nap from age 45 to 55, but that’s another rant for another time … I suspect most women will understand that sentiment whether they have cancer or not.

Within 24 hours of being discharged from having a radical mastectomy, I got a really bad cold that lasted almost until a few days ago — close to 2 weeks.

There were times I thought the hospital intentionally gave me the cold so I could continually cough as they asked us to in the pre-surgery video.

The drugs prescribed also gave me unsettling symptoms:

• The percocet for pain made me both itchy and nauseous — some of the itchiness may have also been from the morphine drip in the hospital — I’m sure there was residue of it pumping through my veins for a few days after being discharged.
• The antibiotics I had to take 4 times a day caused extremely loose stool and very frequent bowel movements.To say the least, I didn’t need the stool softener prescribed.  This problem is quite normal with antibiotics and I lived 50 years thinking I was allergic to them. It wasn’t until Dr. Ciara explained that antibiotics kill good bacteria, along with the bad … it was a moment of clarity that I can’t believe I didn’t have before.

Thank goodness I still had some cough syrup with codeine in it for the bad cold I had in October, and also had Symbicort for the wheezing this cold caused.

In the early hours this morning, I was shivering … and shivering … and shivering.

Oh no, I now may have the Flu! What next? Locusts?

I didn’t get a Flu shot this year because of all this other stuff going on.

Man, do I need some time off after this is all over … just to recover again!

Update: March 1, 2009.

Since going to the doctor on Thursday afternoon, it’s likely I had flu-like symptoms due to the leaking incision — see post entitled White Women Wear Weaves for information on what’s going on with my wound. I’m back on antibiotics and no longer feel like I’m coming down with the Flu.