A Few Tips

Bedding and Sleep Clothes

Keep all those fabrics dark. And add a waterproof pillow protector and mattress cover. Those nosebleeds, man! I got an inexpensive pack of 6 off Amazon.

Keep those fabrics soft. If you can swing a satin pillow case, my skin was a lot happier thank with regular cotton. It took a little getting used to because it was an unusual texture, but, well worth it. And keep the fabrics loose. I wore my favorite pjs that had a rolled over neck seam, so, comfortable but not super stretchy. I started getting a pressure wound from the neck pressing in. I switched to super loose knit tops and my neck cleared up.

Wireless charging pad

I spent a lot of time reading books and watching videos on my phone during treatment. Holding a book got difficult and getting the charger plug in my phone got really difficult. Being able to just put my phone down and have it charge was a big help. I got a $5 one from Ikea and it worked fine all through treatment.

E-Books vs. Real Books

I’ve always loved paper books. Between my fatigue, weakness, and neuropathy I had to switch exclusively to e-books. The final straw was getting a bloody nose from dropping a book on my face. Again. My public library, it turned out, had amazing selection of books. So many lovely books to read. But, I wasn’t able to read completely new books – the chemo made it difficult to remember what was going on. So I picked a few very long series that I had already started or read and mostly kept to those. Not having to learn a wholly new world or cast of characters made it a lot more entertaining and less stressful. And, yeah, I dropped my phone on my face a few times, too, but it was never as bad as catching the corner of that hardback.