However, turns out she hadn't thought the nausea was bad enough for the drugs, and the swelling and reddening around her incision wasn't really that bad.

I don't want to denigrate the experiences of people who've had bad chemo reactions, but many of the people I talk to or hear about these days had bad reactions after they did something stupid, like not taking nausea medication or being on some crazy diet.

I hope things continue to go well, Connie.

I drove to all my chemo, because it didn't hit me until the next morning.

le n, does it help if you take probiotics and eat all the yogurt? I don't have a rec on the other stuff, sorry.

How obscure is "heuristic"?

Very. Says someone else who got a perfect score on the verbal SATs [brag] and never heard that word until I started editing for IEEE.

Connie, hopefully things continue to go well.

Le Nubian, my solution to that has always been garlic, (details whitefonted) peel a clove of garlic - carefully so it's not nicked in anyway, wrap it in a piece of cheesecloth, tie it with unflavored dental floss and insert it like a tampon over night. Remove in the morning and maybe flush the area with plain water. Some women don't like this method because if you cut the garlic the juice can burn and also some places suggest leaving it in during the day and there's the worry about smelling like garlic. Personally when I've had a yeast infection the garlic method takes care of the burning/itching right away and it's usually resolved within 3 days.

le nubian, call the doctor who prescribed the antibiotics and ask for a prescription for Diflucan. It's an oral antifungal -- only 1 pill. You have to wait until all your antibiotics are done before you take it (not because of a drug interaction, but if you take it too soon -- while you're still taking antibiotics -- then the antibiotics will still be wiping out all your flora, and the Diflucan won't be as effective). It generally starts working in 24-36 hours after you take it.

How obscure is "heuristic"?

Very. Says someone else who got a perfect score on the verbal SATs [brag] and never heard that word until I started editing for IEEE.

Yup. I would say pretty damn obscure for a popular audience.

bonny, that's so cool about the Vitamix!

askye,

brilliant. I will try that. thanks.

smonster,

I will eat all of the probiotics too. I have never done this, nor do I know exactly what this is, but I will look into it.

Tep,

okay, thanks for the Diflucan. I figure these 3 things will ward off the ickies AND no vampires.

And maybe I will poop on the regular too.

Heh. I'm so typical. I would MUCH rather take drugs than put garlic all up in my junk.

Which reminds me of something that happened at Target last night -- we were in the men's section, and I kept trying to get Tim to buy novelty boxers (he is not a novelty boxer kind of guy). I picked up a pair on clearance that were a Christmas thing, that had tiny hams all over them. I held them out and said, "Don't you want ham on your junk?" A male security guard was walking past at the time, and he busted out laughing when he heard me.