Tender Feet

Wednesday May 23, 2012

Today was a beautiful day and for the most part I felt pretty good. I’m not complaining about my feet, but am simply documenting my journey and all the ups and downs that go along with it. I’m not sure why, but my emotions have been very close to the surface today.

Now my feet are even more tender and sore than yesterday. I called the patient care advocate and she told me that it is common for patients on the chemo drug taxotere to have an increased sensitivity in their hands and feet. I believe she called it neuropathy. My fingertips have been sensitive to heat and cold for the past 3 weeks or so. They feel like there’s a lot of pressure in the fingertips and I have a hard time opening packages like zip lock bags or opening bottles, etc. I also can’t handle taking frozen bags of food out of the freezer. It feels like it’s burning my fingers. I tried wearing my running shoes today that have a lot more padding and support and it helped cushion my feet more. I was told that this symptom is due to the accumulative effect of the chemo in my system. There’s not a lot to be done to alleviate this feeling, but to keep lots of heavy lotion on my hands and feet and keep out of the sun. If those tender spots turn into open sores then I need to get to the doctor immediately. I’m praying that it won’t get to that point. I guess this is just another reason to put my feet up and enjoy a little Netflix, tv, or a good book! Haha