Chemo Fatigue and Humidity: a Bad Combination

Before this whole cancer odyssey started, I was someone who could not sit still. I would always want to get up and move around. Those impulses are still there now, but being an amputee with frequent bouts of chemo-induced fatigue often gets in their way.

This afternoon, though, I had to get out and move. Since before cycle 7 started, in fact, I was determined to have some kind of outing on the one free day between chemo administrations. The thought of two weeks of nothing but treatment and rest did not make me feel good in the least. So even though I was still quite fatigued, and even though it was very humid outside, Ashley and I went out to Central Park. And I tell you -- even though clouds covered the sun, and there was a lot of shade, I got drained. Fast. I sweated a lot. Sweat on the amputated leg interfered with the fit of my prosthesis. I drained the water bottles I brought with me, and then proceeded to drink a bunch of water and Gatorade upon getting back. That helped, but I was still feeling quite tired from being outside. My appetite wasn't quite there either, limiting what I could have at dinner.

As someone who once went out for runs in humid central Illinois heat on a regular basis, it was a big disappointment to be so readily felled by humid summer weather that I once would have handled easily. But still, thinking back, I would have felt worse had I stayed inside. Maybe my body would have felt better, but my mind would have gone mad. And this is one of the things that keeps me going. As bad as things feel at times, I want to feel like I did when I was healthy and do those same things again, and it's not going to happen if I just sit back and do nothing.