Cancer log 116: It…

Cancer log 116: It turns out that spending an hour and a half walking around errands, followed -- sometime later -- by two hours reorganizing the closet (pulling out the autumn clothes, packing away summer, getting together something to wear for first day of teaching tomorrow), was, in fact, too much activity for post-chemo me. I started getting cold and shaky around five-ish, came to the bedroom to lie down, felt much worse after an hour of lying down, thankfully fell asleep for a bit, and woke up a while later feeling better again.

It is *really* hard to assess my energy levels right now. I feel fine, I do stuff, and then there's -- sometimes -- a delayed reaction. I know it's going to be a solid month post-chemo before my white blood cells, red blood cells, platelets, etc. are close to normal again, and I'm not quite two weeks into that time. But I feel *fine* when I wake up now, and if I'm just wandering around the house puttering, so it's confusing.

The exercise is also good for me -- it's recommended for aiding recovery -- so just avoiding it entirely is not a good option either. I think I just have to self-impose some structured limits on sustained physical activity (like walking, or taking clothes on and off hangers) -- maybe one hour / day right now? And then I can bump it to two hours / day next week? Something like that.

Now, I need to wind down enough to actually get a solid eight hours of sleep before tomorrow's first day of teaching (which shouldn't be *too* strenous physically, but is always a bit of an emotional rollercoaster of exhilaration, nerves, etc.). I think I may dose myself with NyQuil to ensure a good night's sleep. Otherwise, I suspect I'll wake up over and over from dreams where I'm teaching a math class. Naked.