Round 6 WK2

As of Friday very little sleep. When I walked into the onc ward to get my PICC dressing done the nurses all commented on how I didn't look well.  I told them I had had very little sleep due to back pain and constipation.  After some discussion they were quite concerned and rang Niall.  After some back and forth with Niall he prescribed me Oxynorm. Because of my intolerance to Codeine (it puts me to sleep very quickly) and to make sure of no similar reaction to the Oxynorm they gave me a dose in the ward and then monitored me for about 45 mins just to make sure.  The good news, Firstly I had no reaction and secondly the stuff works really well. 

My constipation appeared to have disappeared on Friday,  not sure if disappeared is the right word or maybe I should say flushed away.  Anyway it is back and Sat night was not good.  I have to be careful with the Oxynorm as overuse or prolonged use can cause constipation. Ironic isn't it,  that which assists with the problem can actually cause it. I am being very cautious with it.

Round 6 EOW 2

mychemoromance.blogspot.com

Well, it continues to confuse me. There seems to be no rhyme nor reason although I think the link to this week and 2 weeks ago is both weeks I stopped the Capecitibine for a few days. Interesting how this never affected me last year. Anyway this week I am again bloated, constipated and with back pain. I really am not sleeping well this week either. Back to strange positions and such just to get an hour or two here and there.

Yvonne recommended I go off the Capecitibine for a few days again to give my hands and feet a rest. I don't why. They are lovely and swollen, bright red and cracking and peeling, again! That is the second time this treatment they have peeled.

Along with taking everything I can to relieve the constipation I decided yesterday more water was needed. I normally have about 2 litres per day but yesterday I had closer to 3. In addition to this during the night each time I woke (which is pretty often) I had some, almost an extra 1/2 litre.

The result, what I had hoped for, movement at the station. This has certainly ease my back pain too. Woohoo I might sleep tonight. The downside is my hands, calves and feet are even more swollen than usual. It is always give and take.
OK. I waited overnight to complete this one. It seemed all was good until about 10.30 last night. I'm not 6
sure exactly what I did but my back started spasming and continued until about 3.30am. A lot of pain and not much sleep for most of the night. I'm seeing the Osteo again today to sort out the back.

More news to come.

Round 5 EOW 3

mychemoromance.blogspot.com

This chemo continues to be really different. Again unlike other rounds week 3 has been a challenge. All this week I have had an incredibly bad back pain. At the same time I have had a really puffed bloated painful feeling in the stomach.

Were the 2 linked, I had no idea. All I know is that I have had a real problem sleeping. I haven't been able to lie comfortably in any position. My best sleeping posture has been sleeping very upright in our wing back chair with a big pillow in front of me to stop me from bending too far forward. Unfortunately you can't sleep for very long like that. So I've been getting about an hour at a time and then having to move or walk around to get myself reset. Mostly this week I've been tired, as you can imagine.

The good news is, today I went to my Osteopath who worked very hard on my back and my stomach. With a 'crack' my back went back to where it should be and has felt pretty good all day since. It still isn't 100% but it is much better. On top of that I spent the 2 hours immediately after the treatment in the toilet, and now my stomach feels better too. Again not everything feels 100% but it feels a lot better and I am looking forward to sleeping tonight.

I am sooo glad I took this week off work as well, I have no idea how I would have functioned this week.

Any way treatment number 6 tomorrow, further updates to come.