Chemotherapy, designed to kill fast-growing cancer cells, can also affect healthy cells – in fact damaged healthy cells cause side effects during your chemo. Here… Read More »7 Surprising Ways to Manage Chemo Side Effects
Elissa Bantug
Five weeks into radiation, I decided that the hair on my legs had become so long that an intervention was necessary. Going somewhere to have my legs waxed was too overwhelming in my current state, and cutting myself while shaving seemed like a small risk, as I’d internalized my doctors’ advice about the compromised nature of my immune system. I enlisted my sister to help; although neither of us had ever done anything like this before, we decided the best thing would be an at-home waxing party…This very quickly became one of those situations where the task at hand seemed like a good idea in principle but turned out to be a very, very bad idea. The wax was either too hot or not hot enough, we put the strips on backwards, and we had only minimal results. Wax went everywhere; we made a huge mess; and ended up in nothing but our t-shirts in fits of hysterical laughter on the kitchen floor. We managed to sort-of passably wax a small piece of my shin before I had to throw in the towel and retreat to my room for a nap.
My fatigue hit an all time low towards the last week of treatment. During this time, I had one burst of energy—a precious state of mind and body that had felt on hiatus for many weeks—and I decided that I needed to go grocery shopping.