Despite finishing the 1st course of capecitabine on the 30th, the side effects still were messing up my body for a few days after. The lovely foot blisters stayed around, although to be honest, it did get less painful to move about. Small mercies. I did note skin peeling off my hands, which was lovely, and probably ends any chance of me carving out a career as a hand model. Even after a couple of weeks of not taking the pills, my body continued to rebel: for a couple of days until present I have been suffering bad chest pains that have kept me awake at night and off work in the day. It is a real roller-coaster of joy at present. I will confess to feeling pretty sorry for myself yesterday/last night and noted to my wife I was sick of being sick.
If that wasn't bad enough, I finally got around to arrange a long-overdue mole check at the dermatologist. Who can't get enough cancers in their life? It did afford the slightly humourous exchange with the doctor:
Doc: " so are you on any medication?"
Me: "aside from the chemotherapy you mean?"
We both chuckled.
I was definitely overdue a check, and one on my face was cause for some worry, but pending an excision and biopsy, it may just be a simple basal cell carcinoma, basically an alright sort of skin cancer that I have had before. I await the nod from my insurers to start hacking away.
Away from all things health-related, I have been trying to crack on with work (with year end upon us, and also upon clients), and also have taken baby steps to start being more active, with a first cycle for months, and plans to buy a road bike back in England: the impact on my legs and feet is clearly lessened on a bike versus road running.
I also have an impending trip to Miami and England coming up on Friday: involving nights 3 and 4 of New Order's residency at the Fillmore, South Beach, and then a short hop for a few days to England to meet the oncologist and stack up on the pills for cycle 2 before heading back. And then the side effects start up again.