…this morning and exhausted but functional, time to get everyone ready for their day! 4 more nights until Chemo no. 8 of 12, I’m almost there … Thanking you all for your prayers and well wishes, I’m feeling stronger already. I love you.”
Chemotherapy drugs are powerful enough to kill rapidly growing cancer cells, but they also can harm perfectly healthy cells, causing side effects throughout the body. Chemotherapy can interfere with the body’s ability to produce healthy blood platelets, red blood cells, and white blood cells.
Through her journey, Mandela also gets real about the daily struggle the disease brings—including early menopause.
“I’m 36 years old and menopausing for the third time, some medication in chemotherapy causes damage to the ovaries which results in menopause,” she wrote. “It’s strange, you’ll lose the hair on your head but gain hair on your face and never mind the hot flushes, mood swings, low sex drive, insomnia, vaginal dryness, sleeping problems, losing control of the bladder, depression, urinary tract infections, skin changes which are all symptoms of menopause.”