Trouble (but getting better)

Last night just after dinner time, poor Bill started getting the bone pain from the Neupogen shot.

He's had this pain before, from previous Neupogen shots, but this time, he said it was off the scale. Never pain like this.

By bedtime, we were considering going to the ER for morphine. He said it had become almost unbearable, and he was groaning from the severity of it. He could get his body into no position that would ease the pain.

I quickly studied all his pain medication labels and found that he had one that was 10 mg instead of the 5 he was taking. So I told him I thought it would be worth a try to take two of the 5 mg pills, since he had some 10 mg pills.* I have no idea why he didn't want to take the 10 mg pills, but he feels very confident about this other particular pain medicine in the 5 mg dose. So he took one and a half, to compromise, and it helped.

*Pain medicines contain a lot of acetaminophen. When you read a pain med label, you HAVE to consider the amount of acetaminophen in each pill, because you can easily take an amount that can damage your kidneys and liver, even fatally. So I was watching that he didn't get too much acetaminophen, which is mixed in with the pain med.

But his night was horrible. He kept waking up from the pain. And in keeping with the when-it-rains-it-pours rule, at midnight, he had an equipment malfunction that forced him to walk around and do a lot of physical things, all of which made his burning bones hurt all the more.

By this morning, I have convinced him (I used to volunteer with Hospice) that pain prevention is the goal, not letting the pain escalate in the first place. So now he has his clock set to take the meds 15 minutes early for each dose, and not to skip a dose.

Of course we will call the chemo clinic as soon as they're open.

He was supposed to have another Neupogen shot at 2 pm today, and he is currently refusing to even consider it.

I'll post every time something happens.

Anna B., I know you are praying so hard for him. THANK you, and thank all of you everywhere for your prayers and love.

"This, too, shall pass."