The reason for my getting nothing done? As most of you will realise, last Monday was my last radiotherapy, and I expected to feel tired for a few days, and in truth, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday I was sleeping 18-20 hours out of 24. What I didn't expect was that on Wednesday a whole new world of pain would open up. Clearly the radiotherapy is doing its job, and I know it keeps on working, but as I'd been in no pain before I didn't expect to get any now. Wrong! Not to put too fine a point on it, imagine your butt muscles squeezing in spasms onto something like a golf ball- and really hard. Tuesday night I took paracetamol, that helped a little. No problem till late Wednesday evening, so took some Paracetamol & Codeine I had left from when I broke my shoulder. That helped a bit, but still had pain spasms when I got up, so phoned the colorectal nurse to make sure this was ok- no-one warned me about pain. She said it is normal, just important to get the pain under control, as they don't want me suffering, That makes two of us, I reply. Off to Doctors, this is Thursday,come home with an anti-spasmodic, and co-dydramol. As I discover during Thursday night, this does not help. Dougs suggestion of a hot water bottle does help no end though, and I did manage to sleep when it eased the pain. Back to Docs on Friday, and leave with Co-codamol and Diazepam as a muscle relaxant this time. Actually get some sleep Friday night, then Saturday I wake up ok at first, then I get the stupidist pain imaginable. My buttocks hurt! I felt like I'd been sitting on a pile of rocks all night! That gets worse all night, painkillers not dealing with it, it finally eases off about midnight and I can sleep. Feel fine when I get up Sunday, than late afternoon it comes back in waves, getting severe about 10.00pm. Didn't matter what I did- sit, stand, lie down, walk- nothing eased it. Added to which I'm trying to keep track of what pills I've taken and when. Started a notebook with times for each type. Really easy to get confused about what you took last. Went to bed. Got up at 2.00am, as it was clear I wasn't going to sleep. Finally about 3.45 it started to ease, so went back to bed. Still there when I got up, so back to Doctors. I am now up to Tramadol- and at the moment, its working. For the first time in a week I am completely pain free. You know how serious your painkillers are getting, I've figured, by the size of the warning leaflet in the pack. This one was like unfolding a map of the world. Mind you, by now it could have said I had a 90% chance of growing a second head and I'd still have taken it. On top of this, my skin seems to have developed an allergic reaction to the adhesive on the Stoma bag! Possibly this is also a radiotherapy result, fortunately it looks worse than it feels. Not sore or itchy, though it looks like it ought to be.
At this point, I have to say that I know a number of our lovely WOYWWers suffer this kind of pain on a daily basis- my DIL does too. All I can say is that Ladies, I have the greatest admiration for you, I do not know how you cope. A few days and I have been climbing the walls- I'd have made a deal with the Devil himself on Sunday night. You are all wonderful to me, keeping me going with your support- but you lovely people with your permanent health problems are the true inspirations on here. You all know who you are, so I'm not naming names.
Finally, on a brighter note, I received our first Christmas card of the year yesterday, from Krisha.
Sorry for being so long winded in this post, I will let you all get off now and visit some other WOYWWers.
