Chemo Interruptus

Day 86  

General status update

Nose: starting to heal, now. Jaw hurts much more, anyway.

Hair: really, at this particularly pain-filled point in time, who frigging cares?

Nausea demon: Very p***ed off about the Anti-Tooth Fairy, whom he regards as unfair competition. She doesn’t belong to the Infernal Union of Chemo Demons, she shouldn’t be here, and she’s taking all the limelight. He HATES her. As do I.

Chemo Muse: ‘Suffering is always interesting’ she observed brightly over breakfast this morning. I told her she could make her own toast.

Anti-Tooth Fairy: Vicious, just vicious. The rest of the cast of characters inside my increasingly deranged head are united in hating her, and deeply resenting her intrusion into our happy little home.

Despair Demon: he came abseiling in through the window again yesterday, yodelling, as I sat contemplating the truly cosmic unfairness of toothache/tooth infection/root canal work in addition to chemo. I know life isn’t fair, but the Furies are really having a laugh now, aren’t they?

Chemo Brian: we’ve been entwined on the sofa today, but unfortunately he can’t do much about the toothache, other than make soothing noises.

Sleep, lack of: up at 4am with the toothache, scarfing down brandy and painkillers.

Anxiety level (1-10): 256

State of mind: pretty much what you might expect after suffering from toothache for several days

Today was pretty much cancelled as my jaw continued to dissolve into a red ball of pain. I went to the hospital and had my bloods done; my neutrophils are low, but sufficiently high for the dentist to be allowed to do stuff to me tomorrow: she wants to kill the nerve, whatever that entails, and that should also stop a lot of the pain. By tomorrow the antibiotics should also be starting to kick in, so I’ve just got to get through tonight…

My dentist’s appointment is at 12.20 pm tomorrow, so that’s 18 more hours of painkillers and alcohol, and a Lorazepam to knock me out at bed-time. Then maybe my life will return to normal – well, normal for chemo, anyway…