Taste in Music

I think I've shared already about what's lovingly referred to as "chemo brain" or "chemo fog." If I haven't (because I don't remember because I have chemo brain--see how that works?) or if you're just joining in now (I have this fantasy in my head that people read my blog and can't wait for the next entry) here it is in brief. One of the side effects of chemo can best be described as a curtain of fog that falls over the brain. It's not fun.

But it is interesting.

This last week, I had chemo fog bad for several days. During that fog, a couple of new symptoms blossomed (why is that word so gross?).

One was that I couldn't process how things tasted. This is super specific. It's not the usual side effect that people talk about with chemo and taste. Yes, it totally jacks up your tastebuds, but this wasn't that. I could taste things. I knew I was tasting them. I could even sometimes tell if the taste was pleasant or not. But I had no idea what the taste was. Somewhere in my brain, something shut off in that department. Again, it wasn't that things were tasteless, but the end result was the same for me. There was the taste input, but there was no level of output. I might as well have been eating cardboard, as far as my brain was concerned.

This mouth and tongue are way more attractive than mine.

The other one was with music. If I was listening to a piece of music I already knew, I could sing along, on pitch. But if it was something new, I couldn't process the melody. I could process the lyrics just fine, but I had no idea what the melody might be. I could hear there was a melody, but that was the extent of it.

Weird, right?

But more interesting than anything else. That's the other thing--when I talk about side effects, they aren't all awful. Some of them are downright positive. Examples: first, my elbows, which used to be like elephant skin, are soft and smooth as a baby's butt, and b) my beard, which used to be coarse and pokey, is now cottony-soft.

There was a Mad about You reference in that last paragraph, if that's of interest to anyone.

So there you go. You now have heard two fascinating and two positive possible side effects of chemo. Individual experiences may vary.

Post-script:  I wrote this entry with mild to moderate chemo fog, but worked really hard to make sure there weren't any errors. So if you spot one, make a comment! I'll love it. Promise.

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Coming next, we talk about the vile effluvia of the chemo recipient.

Yeah. Something like that.

Next post.