This last week of radiation turned out to be a lot harder than the first. The issue seems to be that the tumor sites are getting inflamed from the radiation and causing more pain. We had been warned about this but we didn't realize it would be significantly more painful. Tuesday night Karen started to feel more of an aching on her left side. When she got up in the morning there was a sharp pain upon moving. She said it felt like something inside her was tearing. At certain times standing up was painful enough to make her double over and gasp for air. They upped her pain medication by a significant amount when we went in that day. 50% to be exact. Karen felt like that might be a bit much and wanted to try out just a 25% increase. By the end of the week she was on the full 50% increase and wondering if it was enough. The increase in dosage has helped with the dull aches which also accompanied the new pains, but they don't seem to help a lot with the sharp pains that hit her at random times when getting out of bed or standing up. The left side is still worse than the right, but it does seem to be affecting both sides.
The only bright side to this pain is for once it actually is the cancer dying that's causing the pain. Something we've hoped was the case in the past, but turned out not to be. Since these tumors are near the surface we've decided to try a menthol rub like Icy Hot. If that doesn't work we want to try the lidoderm patches that worked so well with her localized pain the past. Her fatigue isn't getting any worse; unfortunately, she still has energy but can't do much without the fear of hurting. She's even finding herself awake at night when she wants to be sleeping. We've heard the radiation can also cause diarrhea, but it only seems to be balancing out the constipating effects of all this new pain medication. She has been taking fewer laxatives to stay regular, but it's yet to cause a problem.
