Side effects of side effects

Posted on March 27, 2007
Filed Under All, My Brain |

So, we’ve spent 2 pretty miserable days coping not with cancer, but with the side effects of drugs that we are taking to deal with cancer (or the side effect of some other drug or procedure).

The big muscles in my legs are very weak, thanks, I’m told, to ramping down the steroids that were given to me to control the edema (swelling in my brain) caused by the radiation therapy. I might have been better off dealing with 4 weeks of partial paralysis caused by edema: I’m now in my 5th week of steroid-induced problems (though we are at a particularly low ebb just at the moment).

Blood test today showed very low hemoglobin and hermatocrit, consistent with the relatively massive Temador round I took last week - I think my anemia is back on top of the steroid weakness, and the two together are the pits. I got down on my haunches today, and I literally couldn’t stand back up. This sucks, but docs say nothing to do but wait and work my way out of it best I can…