Pain

Things have changed for the worse. Specifically, my bone pain has increased and is currently not under control at an acceptable level. Until last Wednesday, March 2, I was using a 50 micrograms of Fentanyl (which is 100 times more powerful per amount than morphine) for bone pain and 10-20 milligrams of Oxycodone per day for breakthrough pain. My pain was controlled at about a 2 on a scale of 0-10 where 10 is extreme incapacitating pain like I felt last summer. This level of pain (2) didn't stop me from doing anything. Now I am using 100 micrograms of Fentanyl and 40-80 milligrams of Oxycodone for breakthrough pain. My bone pain is higher and more variable now, around 8 when I get up, dipping to around 5 in the early afternoon, and then rising to around 8 at bedtime. My hips and thighs are the most painful areas, which makes me walk slowly and with a limp (and lately with crutches). A disadvantage of the increased painkillers is that it makes it difficult to maintain mental focus, for example, while driving.

I am having chemotherapy today in about an hour. I know I said before that I was planning to stop all chemo, but the increase in bone pain has scrambled those calculations. On my oncologist's recommendation, I am switching from the FOLFIRI regimen to FOLFOX. We need to try something different to have hope.

The New York Times ran an interesting article last Thursday on how medical teams should manage patients' optimism: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/03/health/views/03chen.html

I talked to my older son (he is 8 years old) yesterday about my health situation, It was a good talk. Maybe I'll say something about it next time.