Ouch!

Our last day at Williamsburg (Oct 19) featured great weather and great rides at the Busch Gardens amusement park. Next morning we were up at three (that's right - 3:00 am) and off to the airport. The trip home was uneventful and we found all well when we got there, but by Saturday evening the condition of my back had rapidly worsened. The strongest medicine I had (expired Lortabs) wasn't strong enough to get me a good night's sleep, or any sleep at all for that matter. I literally stood up all night because it was the only way I could get comfortable.

Sunday the back pain just got worse throughout the day so finally I talked to the weekend on-call doc at Utah Cancer Specialists, who said I should go to emergency. So, late that night Laraine took me to the ER at Intermountain Medical Center, where they did the usual blood tests and and a CT scan, neither of which revealed anything unexpected. They first gave me Percocet, which did nothing, but then gave an IV dose of Dilaudid, a concentrated form of a morphine, and that really hit the spot. I could feel its effect almost immediately, as the pain drained away completely.

I don't know what I was thinking at that point, but we decided to go home, armed only with a prescription for Percocet, which we already knew didn't work. Monday morning I saw Dr. Nibley to talk about cancer treatment alternatives, but he also gave me a prescription for a Fentanyl pain patch. I next saw Dr. Avizonas, a radiation doc, to schedule radiation treatments for the myeloma mass on  my backbone, but she also gave me a prescription for oral Dilaudid to help with the pain.

Despite all the prescriptions I had, by Monday night the pain was at the top of the chart again, so I called the on-call doc again, and this time he admitted me straight into IMC as an inpatient. During my stay, which lasted until Wednesday afternoon, I met with several more doctors to figure out a pain management approach that I could use at home--one that didn't require an IV.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, I did the first of ten daily radiation treatments there at IMC. The actual radiation lasts only a few seconds, and cannot be felt at all, but lying on the hard, flat table hits my nerves, or the myeloma mass, or something, in a way that causes excruciating pain, about an 8 or 9 on the pain scale. I just hope it all does some good.

So next, on Thursday, I consulted Dr. Jane McPherson, a pain specialist with the clinic, who I had met with last fall concerning neuropathy. She helped me consolidate the various prescriptions I had received during the past week into a single plan, upping the dose on a couple of them. With a little experimenting with timing and dosages I made it through the weekend, trading off pain for a drugged up feeling.


Friday we met with Dr. Zangari, head of the myeloma program at the Huntsman Cancer Institute, to consider getting a "formal" second opinion from him. We had somewhat conflicting aims: he wanted to do a full "staging"--two days of testing--before even discussing the matter. I just wanted to talk about his basic philosophy toward myeloma treatment before investing in the two days of treatment. To make matters worse I got quite nauseated while we were talking, and his staff had to give me IV anti-nausea and pain meds and hydrating solution. But after nearly two hours I think we came to a meeting of the minds. We're going to go ahead and start with the full staging as soon as we've completed the radiation treatments.