23. Post-chemotherapy Zoom Day, and a Bald Pig
July 16, 2022
Update. As expected, week 1 of the chemotherapy cycle = not feeling well with fatigue and nausea, both of which were manageable without medications. I took some paracetamol/acetaminophen for muscle pains a few times. Overall, I just had to take things easy and pace myself with food intake and activities. I am also hydrating a lot orally. In addition to the Pocari Sweat electrolyte drink (the Japanese drink with a funny name), I’ve added fresh ginger tea since that helps both the gastrointestinal symptoms and hydration.
However, this time around the fatigue is lingering longer than it had during the previous 2 cycles. Apparently that’s expected too – the side effects accumulate as you get more chemotherapy drugs into you. So a lot of my time this week was spent sitting or laying in bed while listening to videos on Integrative Health and Medicine – Coursera has these courses you can take for free but if you want to do their assessments (quizzes, projects) and get a certificate, you’d have to pay Coursera. I don’t need those – I am happy just to learn about Acupressure, Herbal Medicine and Essential Oils. Hoping to finish Mindfulness and Guided Imagery in the next few days.
Friday was Zoom day. I ”attended” the soft opening of the University of the Philippines College of Medicine’s new Medical Sciences Building while listening to talks from a research forum based in Japan. The conference presentations were in English. But the moderator also had this handheld translation device that she used for translating Japanese questions for the Chinese presenter, then the Chinese presenter answered the question in English.
Finally, today (Saturday) I prepared a little for the webinar on Performing Arts Medicine tomorrow mornng. I am the first speaker and it starts at 8 AM. One of the decisions I had to make was whether to wear a wig or a hat to cover my lovely bald head. I figured it would be too much trouble to style a wig early Sunday morning… I will just plop a hat on my head and be done with it. I happened to mention it to my friend Marjorie, who suggested Doreen should go bald too in solidarity with me, since she is a breast cancer mascot and an emotional support pig. The result was hilarious 
and I am glad I brought a bit of birthday cheer to Marj 
No breast cancer mascots were harmed during this experiment, courtesy of a mobile phone app called “bald booth”.
