I apologise for the delayed status report. I wasn’t feeling too bad yesterday morning and afternoon, so I left blogging until the evening. Unfortunately my back got a lot worse so that by then I didn’t feel up to doing anything at all. In fact, the whole of the week has been dominated by my back pain, and my attempts to manage it as best I can. What a good job we were able to get out to see I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, or the week could have been entirely washed out!
I had two doses of palliative radiotherapy on Tuesday and Thursday last week. Both of them were quite high doses (8 Grays) which made me feel more than a little nauseous for a day. The first one, to my T8 vertebra, caused a substantial flare-up of the pain in my back, but the second one was much less troublesome.
The pain is causing the medical team some concern, I think. They don’t understand why morphine appears to be useless against the pain, while ibuprofen works wonders for about 18 hours per day. I don’t understand it either, but I want to talk again to the symptom control specialist who sorted out my nausea problems earlier. She was very helpful before, and I have high hopes of the conversation with her.
The other thing that has helped with managing the pain has been to find a posture which rests my back without applying too much pressure to the infalmed areas. The method for piling pillows taught to us by Gillian’s mother has been quite helpful, although I have found that no single arrangement of pillows appears to work two nights running, which is extremely frustrating. Surprisingly, however, the most comfortable place I have found is the sofa in the living room. A pile of cushions leant against the arm of the sofa seems to make the most comfortable wedge for my back of all that I have tried so far. When it all gets too bad, I lie down and listen to podcasts for a couple of hours, which goes a long way to easing my back.
I’ve also ordered a foam bed wedge which will replace the pile of pillows, and should be a lot more comfortable. (Of course, the ideal would be an electric hospital bed, which was where I got the idea from in the first place, but although it is possible to get them, I don’t think it would be a quick or easy process to do so.)
I can feel that the pain is easing slightly as the days go by. The consultant did say that the radiotherapy would continue acting for up to six weeks after application, so I can only suppose that I’m feeling its effects as they accumulate. I wish it would get better faster, but I can cope as long as it is improving. At least, I can cope during the day. The nights feel like something else entirely. More about that later, perhaps.
So there we are. A week dominated by back pain, but relieved by a lovely excursion.
{ 4 } Comments
Dear Chris,
Sorry it has taken so long to add something to your blog as it took quite a time to read it after Gillian let me know recently about your cancer. I am glad you are managing to keep smiling albeit through gritted teeth at times – but those endorphins will help. I had a chat with Gillian about more alternative methods of analgesia and pain control to discuss with your palliative care team. It may seem daft but even something simple like a foot massage may help if only by distracting you and helping you to relax for a few minutes.
Love Karen
Thanks Karen. Some of our other friends have also made suggestions, so all together we’ve got a whole list of things to discuss with the Palliative Care team when we next see them – which should be this Wednesday.
Hi Chris,
Sorry for the delay in responding to this posting (rare day off for me today!) but I just felt I had to. This pain ‘thing’ is more complex than one might imagine. The medics don’t really know a great deal about the nervous system and pain sensors – not that some admit to it! When I was recovering in hospital from my recent surgery I was given morphine in one of those ‘self-adminster’ units attached to my hand. However I was finding it little more than useless for managing my pain and I resorted to soluble paracetamol. The nursing staff couldn’t understand why I wasn’t using the morphine and why it was having zero affect. The paracetamol was taking the edge off the pain which I was able to manage. At a follow up with my surgeon weeks later it transpires that I have another condition (which I won’t share here) which is related to the fact that my pain sensors don’t switch off readily and the condition affects people who have this problem and is triggered by some sort of trauma (may be many years ago). Which is why morphine was having no affect. This condition is usually treated with a mild dose of anti-depressant rather than pain killers!
By the way, I would support a previous blogger who suggested alternative ‘medicine’/therapy – it can be more effective than pharmaceuticals.
My very best wishes to you and Gillian – stick in there!
J.
J, that’s a very interesting tale. I’m glad you were eventually able to solve your pain problems satisfactorily. And I’m really glad to know that I’m not alone in finding morphine doesn’t work sometimes. In my case it has worked in the past, so I was expecting it to work this time too.
I have to admit that I’m wary of alternative treatments as it’s hard to know whether or how well they’re going to work. They’re not usually available free, which always makes me worry that I’m being taken for a ride by their proponents.