Differentiating side affects of "normal" life vs cancer treatment
How do you distinguish if the heartburn (or other symptoms) you are experiencing is from stress or diet related instead of treatment medication related?
I am taking the lower dose of kisqali. Started with 400mg (1 cycle), and finished the second cycle last week taking 200mg. On my second day of the off week I started feeling a bit tired and mild nausea (no vomiting). The nausea started this past Wednesday. It usually gets better after eating (what makes me think that I may be experiencing acidity in my stomach). I had a consultation with my oncologist yesterday, and after that I did not feel the nausea, until this morning. But again, after eating breakfast it gets better.
I was reflecting on my thoughts and realizing that if I did not have had a Breast Cancer diagnose, I would be more relaxed thinking about symptoms. For instance, because I have a sore throat and work in a school, I could be possibly have caught a virus/cold, but after breast cancer, my mind takes any symptoms and connects it to cancer related issues/treatment first.
Does anyone experience that?
Hope everybody is staying strong 💕
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Firstly, it is completely normal to worry about every symptom after your diagnosis. I'm hoping the advice of others on this forum is true and that this will diminish over time.
Years before my cancer diagnosis, I was seeing a pain specialist for a chronic pain issue. One of the suggestions she made was to keep a daily "symptoms" diary. I found this to be hugely helpful in identifying trends that I might otherwise miss - food triggers, stessors etc.
With my cancer diagnosis I got myself back in the habit again. Personally track things like how I slept, blood pressure, mood, exercise, side effects, any physical issues and make simple notes about what else is going on during my day as a way to identify if there are any correlations. One example is I noted that my dizziness and nausea was consistently worse 20 minutes after taking my medication. This led me to change from taking it in the morning to taking it before bed in the hopes I would sleep through the worst of it.
It was also hugely helpful when trying to speak to the Oncologist about issues. I could identify exactly what day a certain side effect started or changed. No guessing or talking in ball parks. I think it actually made her start to take notice. I would like to say listen, but that's never happened 🙄
Just a suggestion of something that's helped me.
Take care
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Thank you missymoo!
It is helpful for me to take kisqali with a full stomach. I do it after breakfast.
I am keeping some notes for big events, when something unexpected happens, but not in a daily basis. I want to try disconnecting as well, so I will not only have the healthy topic on my agenda everyday, if you know what I mean.
Take care.
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