How Things Are Going

I finished my course of 10 radiation treatments on July 20 and returned home on the 21st, completely exhausted and troubled with pain in my right shoulder. I spent much of my time the remainder of the week asleep, as the exhaustion was completely debilitating. I did have a birthday, I think, but I mostly slept through it. My friend Swanknitter had made arrangements to visit from the 25th, so I was happy to be awake when she arrived. I was still absolutely flattened by the pain, which seemed not to be responding to anything. I had been switched from Dilaudid to an Oxycontin/Oxycodone combination and I was feeling quite ill from the diminishing effects of the radiation, the new painkillers, and other accumulated problems. I was finally feeling better from the radiation by the 28th, to the extent of having an appetite and getting some energy back.

Dr. G had asked that I come back for new scans on the 30th so we'd have a new baseline set. Swanknitter and I finished up our visit on the 29th and she returned to DC to head home to Australia from there, and we headed up to Cleveland that afternoon. The scan results weren't great but they weren't hopeless either: I'd been off all forms of treatment since end of April, so no surprise to see progression in the lungs. Test results also showed that I had high blood calcium levels, and that was probably to blame for the complete exhaustion and slight confusion I'd felt after getting home. I was given a two-hour, two-liter infusion of saline, and an infusion of my old friend Zometa.

Dr. G also made arrangements for me to meet with Dr. R of the Pain Management Clinic. Her recommendation was to continue on a reduced dose of the Oxycodone, the dose of Oxycontin that I was already on, and to add to this a prescription for Neurontin. Dr. R's nurse Brenda said, "As it is, nobody knows how it works or what it does, but it works and that's all that most people ask."

I was able to fill my first month's prescription for Afinitor before we headed home, and Saint H handed in my Neurontin prescription to fill at my local pharmacy after we got home.

I sat down last night and wrote out my pill schedule since so many things have changed: we start at 7:00 a.m. and can run continuously through 24 hours every 2 hours, if I'm awake, though the blessed Brenda says "we don't set alarm clocks to take pills, for heaven's sake!" I like that thinking. Also, last night having been the first complete cycle including the Neurontin, I'm thrilled to report that I have very little pain in my shoulder for the first time since November of last year. It's great to be witness to one of those little mysteries of medicine; I don't have to know why Neurontin works, either; just the fact that it does makes me happy. I look forward to improved conditions in the coming days. Wah-hoo!