Cancer Pain Management

[Guest guest]

Gee, it is so awful to read about all the folks suffering so much.

 

I went thru 16 weeks of radiation and chemotherapy beck in 2002. It was almongst

the worst times of my life.

 

I smoked marijuana (did not know about the oil which I am currently reading up

on) and drank it as a tea and made butter out of it to put on and in foods.

 

I also took the morphine and dilaudid and oxycontin that was prescribed for me.

As often as not, I would double or even triple dose myself. It did not really

help. it just took the edge off the pain. still, i measured time from dose to

dose, knowing that even though the medicine would knock me to my knees, it would

relieve the very worst of the pain for a few minutes.

 

It is odd how one can steel oneself. for the first 8 weeks of the torture, er,

treatment, I took no meds at all. I had been told what to expect and was

prepared to deal with it. A nurse noticed me one day and took me in to see the

radiation oncologist who immediately put me on a four day break. At that point,

my body came down from the shock and the pain entered. I realised I had not been

given full information and that my tissues were burnt crispy with no outer

dermal layer remaining.

 

There was no way to undo what had been done. I changed radiation doctors to one

who might be truthful with me and began taking every medication possible to help

with the horror. I found myself feeling thoroughly humiliated by the fact that I

had volunteered to be so misused. all I could think about were concentration

camp victims. they had not volunteered for their torture but I had.

 

As you can see, I survived but I did not come out whole as I was before the

episode. I am much diminished. Because I got through so much with only my

resolve, I would suggest hypnotherapy for pain management. you'd need someone

really good. It was simple resolve which got me through. In the second 8 weeks,

while I was taking the meds, nothing really helped. I was broken.

 

I'm so very sorry. My heart really goes out to you.

 

Still, proper nutrition will help as it helped me. It is difficult to eat when

there is such distress so a juicer is a great plus. Make a liquid salad.

Lettuce, kale, celery, ginger, garlic,radishes & leaves,beets, turnips, put in

everything. Make it more palpable with pineapple and/or oranges. The awful thing

is that as food helps, it also brings about sharper awareness of pain. Still, it

makes survival more possible.

 

I remember cancer as taking away my will to survive. It just did not matter as

there came a point where I did not believe I would ever really live again. There

was just suffering. no night, no day, no one o'clock or two'clock except when it

came to taking a near useless pain pill.

 

Attitude is very effective.

 

Once the pain began to abate, I stopped taking the pills and have never desired

them again.

 

Best wishes for a much brighter new year.