Exactly two months ago tomorrow I restarted on Cabozantinib, my chemotherapy treatment as of late.
If you recall I had to take a break from it as the side effects were unmanageable. The break certainly helped and on November 13th we felt comfortable enough to restart the drug.
It took me a week to finish the the 60 mg Cabozantinib pills. I was taking them every three days which averaged my dose to 20 mg per day. For the other five weeks I have been taking a 20 mg pill of Cabozantinib daily, usually around 6ish in the morning, for consistency sake. And because I can’t eat for two hours before and one hour after.
This change from 60 to 20mg has been way more manageable and may be something for those following in my path to take into account when managing dosage with your Oncologist. I believe the spike of that much chemo is one of the reasons that I had challenges in this past September and October.
I also believe I have habituated and/or trained myself to accept the nuisance of the side effects. I still have the headache, memory challenges, sore joints, itchy skin, mouth sores and taste alteration. They are all present as I type this. But I’m not focusing on them in the negative way I did previously. I’m not giving the attention they are itching for, and as a result they do not consume as much of my headspace. Hmmm, except when I write this I notice myself scratching the red spots on my ever expanding belly.
So, I’ve happily learned two things. If you can take a more consistent dose of chemo, and if you can be disciplined enough to not focus on the mess chemo leaves behind, then you will certainly have a more enjoyable experience.
And as I type this I decided a bath was in order, and it feels awesome.
Oh, and experience taught me that lathering my whole body with a good cream after a bath keeps the itching to a manageable level.
And how fun is that!!
