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side effects

Day 1. FEC treatment 1. Slight 'taste' during administration of F. Slight tingling in nose during administration of C. Ate frozen orange juice chips and half an egg sandwich during infusions. Felt slightly woozy/heady after treatment. Good appetite afterwards. At least two litres of water and other fluids taken. Took all meds on time and felt ok overall. Slept well.

Day 2. Took meds as prescribed. One or two fleeting moments of vague nausea, quickly averted by eating something. Appetite better than usual; ate very healthily throughout day. High fluid intake. Feeling good. Heart fluttering when laying on left side. Some palpitations/heart thumping through the day. Neulasta injection at 9pm. Slept well.

Day 3. Feeling a bit 'hung over' on waking. Slower to get moving. Decide to cancel plans to go out for a walk as not feeling much energy, but after eating change mind again and head out for river walk. Short walk and play in river with kids. Pub meal afterwards with friends. Hungry and good appetite, but tummyache is more pronounced now. Taste buds somewhat affected - some foods taste bland. By end of meal, feeling tired and a bit done in. PICC arm a bit sore. Glad to head home. Slept well.

Day 4. Meds as prescribed. Feeling pretty good. Tummyache/distended belly. Painted half my bedroom and hung a shelf. Heart still thumping occasionally. Skin on face dry and peeling. Ate and drank well throughout day. Slept well.

Day 5. Child-free day! Felt ok on waking. Baked banana bread, cleaned kitchen and did two loads of laundry. Two hours' of filming with B. Made potato and leek soup. Stroll to allotment (purple sprouting broccoli is doing well!). Late evening develop fluey aches all over body. Left upper abdomen very tender and sore. Go to bed but have trouble sleeping. After waking several times, get up at 2:30 a.m. and take two ibuprofen for pain. Manage to sleep till 7 a.m.

Day 6. Lay on sofa and watch dvd with three-year-old. Feeling very lacklustre. Collect five-year-old from school at 12:20 and go over to friend's house. Lay down on sofa with five-year-old, who is complaining of sore tummy. My own tummy is very, very sore and tender. Still have a good appetite, but totally lethargic. Lay on sofa for three hours, catnapping. Pain in PICC arm/chest. Feeling tearful and tired. Spleen area so tender. Call unit to ask about spleen pain. Told to take paracetamol and ring back in the morning if still bad. Slept ok.

Day 7. Slow to get going in the morning, but not feeling so bad. Lethargic and moderately fatigued. Sore throat. District nurse at 11:30 a.m. to flush PICC line and change dressing. Line working fine but crusted with dried blood and DN pulls it out by .8cm when cleaning it. Arm and chest quite sore before and after. Dry cough not helping. Site bleeds after new dressing applied and sore. Spleen still tender but not as bad as yesterday. Spent an hour in the park after school run...beautiful, warm day. Arm more sore after rescuing child from various mis-haps. Hot water bottle on arm/chest all afternoon/evening. Still have a good appetite and drinking plenty of water, peppermint tea and green tea and honey with lemon.

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