Busy Treating Side Effects

Just wanted you to know I am having a bunch of nuisance side effects that are familiar from previous rounds of chemo but take up a lot of my day, which is already shortened from ongoing fatigue.
If I don't post for a week or two, it's likely because I'm focused on treating the side effects and the side effects from treating the side effects. (My doctor thought the mouth infection was a side effect of the drug that in other ways prevents side effects - and has other beneficial qualities - although the infection can also be linked to my chemo drug. Samsaric medicine! Now that I am on a 4-week chemo schedule, rather than the 3 weeks out of 4 schedule I was on for a few years, I only take that drug for a week. One less thing to keep track of for the moment.)

If you are curious about my current days as a cancer patient, here are a few details.
For the Hand-Foot Syndrome, aka PPE (Palmar-Plantar Erythrodysesthesia), I'm supposed to ice my feet and hands 3x/day, and I am not supposed to walk or use my hands very much - which means I'm not supposed to do much typing!
Note that there is another hand-foot syndrome that's a side effect of a lot of chemos called "peripheral neuropathy," basically numbness, which can be serious. I've had that in a mild form on previous chemo drugs.

For the mouth infection (not a mouth sore, which is another potential side effect from this chemo, and which I did have a couple months ago), I am to ...
- gargle with warm salt water 4x/day
- gargle with a liquid medication 4x/day
- dissolve a pill under my tongue for half an hour 5x/day

Because my memory and brain have been affected by all the chemo, it takes some effort to keep track of all of this, and I use notes on paper.

Thankfully I don't have the ear infection or the bleeding nose that I had last round in addition to the mouth infection, so I don't need to take the antibiotic or apply the ointment.

What I am really grateful for, however, is Buddha, Dharma and Sangha - and that is you.