Thoughts from the T-Shirt Lady

A little background - I am near sited and have been wearing glasses since I was 12. Oh, I dabbled a little bit in wearing contacts, but my eyes dried out so frequently, it was easier just to wear glasses.

I have been seeing the same eye doctor for almost 27 years - I guess that’s an unusual experience for someone who moved around a lot during childhood, and early marriage - military family.

Several weeks ago, while I was still on chemo, I noticed that the sight in my right eye was not as sharp as it usually is. Also, I noticed flashing lights on the far right side of my right eye, and large things floating across my vision.

So today - I went to my eye doctor for a yearly exam, and to find out what has happened to my right eye. After a thorough examination, he mentioned that I had a cataract forming in the back of right eye, and it was probably caused by the chemo - those strong little cell killers attacking my fast growing eye cells. Just the right one, not the left!

If I close my left eye, I feel like I’m looking through smoky glass. But, according to the eye doctor, my left eye is compensating, and I shouldn’t need surgery for a long time. Let’s hope - as I don’t look forward to any surgery at all!

I put this blog under both ‘on aging’ and ‘cancer’ - on aging, because, as we grow older, many people develop cataracts and have to have surgery. A dear friend just went through it - and she was delighted with the result. Her sight was much better than it had been before the cataracts. Of course the down side to this is she now has to wear reading glasses. I don’t think better eye sight is an incentive for me to have the surgery….grin….I’ll just stick with the glasses!

I also added this to my cancer category, as this seems to be just another obscure side effect from the chemo.

You know how you start to take a new medication, and the list of side effects…normal ones… are listed as well as some that most people don’t have? Well let me tell you - I had some doozies from the chemo.

As I mentioned before, the first 4 treatments made me very tired. I was on Adriamycin & Cytoxan. Never felt sick to my stomach - with as much anti nausea drips and medication that they gave me. I did loose my hair and had really low white blood count. Of course extreme exhaustion too. Had mouth sores as well.

Now we come to the last 4 treatments. That was Taxol. I was given benedryl before the treatment so that I wouldn’t break out in hives. What the benedryl did was make me very sleepy and I slept almost the whole 4 hours of the treatment! That was nice. Along with the joint pain that I have mentioned in a previous post, the weird side effects was a burning sensation in my mouth if I tried to drink soda, and a greasy feeling left in my mouth whenever I ate or drank anything. (when I mentioned this one to my oncologist - his comment was ‘I think I’ve heard of that one’). I think that was the worst one and I couldn’t wait for it to go away. I love food, but the chemo gave the food no taste, and then to have the greasy feeling left after I ate - well I really didn’t want to eat at all. And I still gained weight! 10lbs. I was told that weight gain was a side effect - so I guess that can be my excuse….grin….

My last treatment was mid December and it took a few weeks for even that greasy feeling to go away. But thank goodness it did. I can now taste the food, and I enjoy it. Of course with the 10 lbs to lose, I have to go back to watching what I eat. I’ll let you know how I do as time goes by.

Sandi