I started out using a handwritten record of symptoms but found that it was hard for me to visualize or utilize the data. Chemo brain is real! A few weeks ago, I started using an excel spreadsheet to track symptoms and severity over time. I really like that it consolidates everything into a graph at the top so that I can visualize trends over time.

The symptoms that bother me the most are the ones you can’t see – fatigue most of all. The symptoms that are apparent to others are the rashy skin and hair loss. So, here’s how those are going:

My hair is definitely not growing out and is very patchy. My skin is painful and I’m getting a lot of small sores all over my scalp. I’ve found wearing a soft ‘chemo cap’ while I sleep helps. I’m getting a lot of rough scaly patches on my face, which isn’t fun. I’ve also gotten a lot of allergic like rashes all over my legs. Taking Benedryl for that and it helps enough.

I’ve experienced a wide variety of symptoms, some daily and some just once in a while: