You can forget about getting a good night’s sleep for the first 5-ish days after chemo. I was lethargic and all I wanted to do was sleep or lie on the bed. But all I could get was 2 hours of sleep at a time.
Why? Because of dry mouth and constantly having to go to the toilet.
My mouth got so dry from the drugs, it’s an inevitable side effect. So I’d end up drinking cups and cups of water to quench my thirst.
As a result, I had to use the bathroom way more times than I should. The doctor also warned me against holding my bladder because I’m supposed to flush out the toxins in my body.
The funny thing is, after my fourth and last chemo session, my body became the opposite. I would be napping during the day yet was still able to sleep at night because I was feeling sleepy the entire time. It’s the other extreme end of chemo, said the doctor. I simply have to ride it out.
But that lasted for only 3 weeks. After which I was back to waking up in the middle of the night. Not as frequent as the past few months but I did wake up every 3 to 4 hours, and this lasted for the next few months. Only in May that I’d started sleeping soundly through the night. That’s a total of 7 months of bad sleep.
I’m not sure if me getting a new standing desk helped with sleeping at night, because standing is “technically” a form of exercise. It’s at least better than sitting for the whole 8 hours that I worked every day, right?
But at this moment I’m buying all sorts of creams to get rid of the dark circles around my eyes.
Cancer At 35 
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