Tara's Blog - Wasabi Nose

Have you ever eaten something really spicy and your nose starts to burn? Or have you ever gotten water in your nose while you were swimming and then it started to burn? Now imagine that feeling but instead of it lasting a couple seconds, it lasts about 40 minutes. That's exactly what happened to my poor nose while I was getting chemo on Monday. One of the drugs called Cyclophosphamide can cause what the doctors call "Wasabi Nose." Basically your nose burns for a little bit but it eventually goes away. The doctors said only one other patient experiences this, but they're not sure what causes it. The pain wasn't extreme but it definitely made me uncomfortable, so hopefully it doesn't happen again!

I do have some GOOD news though All of my counts are still looking good! I went into the clinic last week and my white blood cells, platelets, hemoglobin, etc were high enough to begin chemo this week. So, I had chemo Monday and Tuesday and was able to go home Tuesday evening. So far, my time at home has been pretty eventful to say the least.. I ended up getting sick all of Wednesday night into Thursday morning. This was basically the first time I've felt even remotely sick since the chemo started back in June. I didn't have a fever or anything like that, but I did lose my appetite. Thursday was definitely a rest day.

Friday morning I felt brand new. I was feeling so much better, and the best part is, I was starving! I was actually craving food. I knew that day was going to be a good one. So, after lunch, my mom and I went on a nice walk. And since I'm still working on getting all of my strength back, I have a fancy new wheelchair to use whenever I need to. It's perfect because when I want to sit, my mom pushes me, and when I want to walk, I use the wheelchair as a walker. Genius, I know. We've been taking these walks everyday, along with doing physical therapy, and I feel 10x stronger than I did a few weeks ago. Woo  

Once again, I can't thank everyone enough for all of the continued support. My family and I truly appreciate it.