Gotcha!

After 10 weeks of arsenic chemo it finally got me. The dreaded Side Effects.

I guess it would be a tough body that would not react to being poisoned on a regular basis. Rasputin comes to mind. Stabbed, poisoned with enough cyanide to kill 5 men, shot 4 times, and clubbed into unconsciousness, Rasputin didn’t die until he was tied in a sheet and thrown into the icy Neva River. The autopsy revealed that the cold water revived him and he drowned trying to claw his way out of the bedsheet. But I digress.

I make a big deal out of being treated with arsenic, but it really is a relatively small amount. Over 10 weeks I have received 800 milligrams, which converts to slightly more than 0.2 ounces. Much more than you would ever want to get at one sitting but not enough to really kick your ass when spread out over 10 weeks. Or so I thought.

The second-to-last day of my chemo I awoke with my feet on fire. I didn’t think much of because that sometimes happens after a night of carousing and fire-walking. But since I hadn’t been to Mahina Maharu’s Poi Palace in months, I took it up with my oncology nurse.

It seems 40% of patients treated with arsenic develop peripheral neuropathy. The symptoms range from mild tingling to numbness to burning. I apparently jumped right into the fire. Have you ever walked across Georgia asphalt in your bare feet in August? Yeah, that’s about right. It has my thumbs, too. Which is odd.

They say it goes away as the arsenic leaves the system. We shall see. Perhaps I will take to walking around in buckets of ice water. Now there is a conversation starter for you!