Which Do You Want to Hear First? (You Decide!)

Bad News: because of my increasing baseline bone pain (see previous post), I've had to postpone my ultrasound home therapy, since it creates an inflammation response that is even more painful.

Good News: If I can get a prescription for either prednisone or dexamethasone (steroids), I can continue the ultrasound therapy, since these will suppress the inflammatory response without suppressing the cancer-killing activity of the ultrasound (this is how the therapy is carried out at the Dove Clinic in the UK for people, like me, with a heavy tumor load).

Bad News: Although my oncologist had previously recommended prednisone for me for unrelated reasons, I thought I would be able to get a prescription from her -- but now she no longer wants me to be on prednisone.

Good News: As a replacement for the prednisone she was going to recommend, my oncologist wants me to start on ProVenge, an anti-prostate cancer vaccine that's new and has had some success. (I received a personalized version of this vaccine when I was treated in Germany in 2007 and got a complete remission for eight months.)

Being a basically cheerful person, I will end with the good news! ;-)

Pain Management Merry-Go-Round

(WARNING: TMI alert for this post!)

Thanks to all of you that sent notes, calls, and well-wishes this week. Sorry I haven't been able to get back to you and thank you properly, as I've been caught up in a pain cycle I wish I could get out of.

I have a couple of good hours a day (like right now), and then my bone pain starts up again. I have a variety of escalating remedies I can take for it, but I always end up (unfortunately) with vicodin. Even with that I am still sometimes crazy with pain at night.

The vicodin makes me really constipated...and the bone metastases also make me really constipated, since they dissolve bone material into my bloodstream. Together, both processes make me painfully constipated, which just adds to the cycle.

Two days ago I felt good enough to take a long walk...but I started feeling a dull ache near my perineum, and have had blood in my urine ever since. I have a call in to the doctor to see if there's any immediate action I should take. (I hate wasting the perfectly good blood transfusion that I got just last Saturday!)

Once I'm able to decrease the pain, I'll be able to evaluate whether this dear old body will be stable enough to move into an apartment on my own. For the past few days I haven't been very sure about this.