Chemo nausea: the Day 3 pattern nobody told me about

Nobody told me chemo nausea has a schedule. I expected the worst on infusion day. It wasn't.

For me, Day 3 was the dragon.

The pattern

The worst nausea came about three days after each infusion, not on the day. On AC it was brutal. But once I saw the pattern, it stopped ambushing me. I planned my work, my plans and my rest around it.

Once I knew when the dragon was coming, I could get ready for it.

What helped me

My meds came first, on the exact schedule my team gave me. Not when I started feeling bad. On schedule.

Then the strange things. Lemon-salt water. Coke Zero. Salty olives. Don't ask me why. They were the only things my stomach wanted.

Your stomach will want its own strange things, and that's fine. Listen to it.

Your pattern won't be mine

Every drug and every body is different. What changed everything for me wasn't a trick. It was noticing my own rhythm.

Everything I did around each infusion, day by day, is the kind of thing my AI Self can walk you through, any time, even at 2am on Day 3.