Top 10 Most Annoying Side Effects

There is nothing new going on in my life right now, but I have heard that people start asking about me if I don't post regularly so here I am:)

I am hopefully done with chemo now and that has led me to think about all the wonderful side effects I have lived with over the last 6 months.  Now, to channel my inner David Letterman here is my top 10 list of the most annoying side effects.
I will start with the least annoying and work my way to most annoying.

#10.  Losing my eye brows and eye lashes.  It makes me look like a cancer patient.  Bleh.

#9.  Slowed skin and nail regeneration.  This could actually be several bullets but then I would be way over 10 items and each of the reasons behind this item are equally annoying.  The basic annoyances with this are the increased sensitivity of my hands and feet as my calluses have disappeared.  This has made walking painful at times and I have to be more careful of my hands when cooking or doing anything.  I never leave home without wearing gloves these days.  And any nicks or cuts or banged up toe nails (I currently have several) take way longer to heal.  

#8.  No alcohol.

#7.  Immune deficiency.  I can't eat sushi, eggs benny or anything not fully cooked.  At least I
 can still eat pancakes.

#6.  Hot flashes.  Very uncomfortable and definitely interfere with my sleep, which leads me to.....

#5.  Insomnia.  What can I say, I am the sort who needs 8 hours a night.  At least right now I can spend 10-12 hours per day in bed so my total number of hours of sleep isn't too bad.

#4.  Being bald.  I love my hair.  I want my hair back.

#3.  Chemo brain.  The second major reason why I can't work.  Besides, I dislike feeling so stupid all the time and having absolutely no memory.

#2. Fatigue.  The primary reason why I can't work. Nuff said.

And the #1 most annoying chemo side effect I have dealt with is...........(take a guess, I'm sure some of you will get it, I have complained about it enough!)



Losing my nose hairs.
I know, who would ever think nose hairs were so important, but I have probably spent more time blowing my nose over the last few months than I have in the whole rest of my life.    The endless dripping is SO ANNOYING and my nose is so sore.  More than anything else I can not wait for my nose hairs to come back.  I am just thankful I haven't had a cold yet and I don't have allergies.

There are several other side effects I have dealt with but overall they have just not been as annoying.  The honourable mentions go out to:

indigestion/heartburn - no poultry or unground beef for me
mouth sores - soda water was my best friend for a while
no spicy food - it is just too painful
carb addiction - it was just weird, not really annoying
joint pain and bone pain - they would have hit the top 10 except they were both always temporary which doesn't get annoying the same way

Interestingly, those are all the side effects that I can currently think of.  So if there were any others they were either not adequately annoying as to be truly memorable or just so awful they have been temporarily purged from my memory bank.

The next big questions are how long will it take for my body to return to its pre-chemo state and will it really be the same again?  Hopefully it doesn't take too long and everything really does return to normal.
It would be okay if my hair came back curly.