Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

I'll work backwards in this post, starting with where I am now.  I'm comfortable, well-rested, pain-managed, and relatively clean, following a sponge bath that felt phenomenal!  :)  

I'm glad I posted something relatively early yesterday, as I'm trying for daily posts and if I'd have waited till later in the day, it would have been a particularly yucky post!  Apologies to Sarah, whom I invited over before the nausea hit me--so I was a decidedly non-responsive hostess when she came.

Today has been mostly more of the same:  bed-spin kind of nausea, no appetite, feeling better when I lie down with my eyes closed (which means I fall asleep).  But I am feeling a bit more myself now, and I think I might have figured out the cause of the nausea.


When I met with the anesthesiologist before surgery, one of the things that she offered, when I shared my unnatural fear of vomiting, was to use a Dramamine-like patch behind my ear.  She said I could leave it on up to 3 days, and explained that you had to be very careful not to touch it and then touch your face/eyes, because it causes pupil dilation and therefore blurry vision.  I joked with her about being careful that she wash her hands after applying it because I needed her at 100% during surgery.  

I was amazed that, though I had that spell of lightheadedness, I never felt the least bit nauseous post-surgery.  I took percocet every 4-5 hours around the clock, and still no nausea.  Saturday afternoon, I realized it had been over 2 days with the patch on, and I had been having some trouble focusing my eyes--especially reading or knitting, which were the pastimes I counted on to get me thru recovery.  So I took off the patch.  That night I slept straight through, and Sunday morning had a tough time waking up, followed by the nausea. I was also weepy, and feeling sorry for myself--which I HATE!  I had stopped taking the percocet Sunday morning, as my pain is really not bad, and I was worried about lots of side effects.  I called the nurse navigator this morning and left a message, meaning to ask for another patch (read up on them and found that you can switch from side to side every 3 days), since I was blaming the antibiotic for the nausea.  Then I read a little deeper.  It seems that the side effects from withdrawal of the patch are dizziness, nausea, and dysphoria.  Additional side effects from using it are irregular, rapid heartbeat (I'd been hearing my heartbeat in my ears, which was disconcerting), dry mouth and itching (which I also thought was likely the percocet).

So here I am, at least aware of why I was feeling so crappy!  I'm hoping that the knowledge, and the fact that I removed the patch "early" will get it out of my system sooner than later.  I'm just bummed because it worked so well that I was thinking I could maybe use it when I got chemo in the future.  Definitely re-thinking that now!

I'm not an anti-medication person.  I avoid as many as I can for myself because I have always been sensitive to everything I've ever taken (even things like Sudafed or Advil).  But medications really have a place.  It's just so depressing to start down that pathway where you take one, which gives you a side-effect that requires taking another to deal with, and then a third...  I know already that my chemo trip will be a lot of that, with the chemo meds requiring anti-nausea meds, and meds to boost my blood counts, and so on.  But knowing the side effects ahead of time, and what I can expect has always made it easier for me.  That's why all of your experiences, in notes and FB messages, have been so useful through this process.  Knowledge is power, and while Joan of Arc is leading me by strength, I think I have some patron saint of wisdom that's helping me out, too.  Teamwork is always the best, and I have the most amazing team.