Okay this is a new one for me.  I have a cold.  A honest to goodness "normal" cold.  I tried to be careful in avoiding any germ exposure while my white blood counts are down from the chemo, but obviously some germs got through to me.  I suppose it's unavoidable this time because my counts are lower.  No need to question if it's because I ventured out in public too much or didn't wash my hands or shower enough or forgot for a moment and scratched my nose with my bare hand, I caught a cold.

I wondered what it would be like having a cold on top of chemo side effects since most of my side effects are coldlike.  I imagined that every symptom I had would just be worse, but in truth, that's not so.  Actually, it's funny that the cold symptoms are winning out, and it feels like a normal cold.  I have to admit that in some weird perverted way, it's nice.  My cold actually has fixed a lot of my chemo side effects!  I'm not queasy and nauseaous and have a normal appetite.  I suppose if I weren't on steroids, I wouldn't have any appetite, but I'll take this chance to not binge on junk food.  The awful headaches from topotecan are replaced with a stuffy head.  For whatever reason, the cold is masking the headache or has somehow eliminated it.  The only symptoms that are worse are a bad sore throat and sneezing with a runny nose or stuffed sinuses.  So it's a regular cold.  Even my energy level is okay considering I have a cold.  I almost feel normal....