((Back to a new normal. I am on one drug after a few days, and the patches have been removed.))
Can you believe it? I wrote the above short sentence on May 28, three weeks ago. The one drug in question was Hydromorphone 2mg. Now - guess what!! I am now three weeks later on 6 drugs. That my friends is my new normal!! Six drugs in varied proportions at different times of the day. Here is the list:
Synthroid 50mcg - once a day, first thing in the morning; the purpose is to strengthen my thyroid
Dexamethasone - 4mg at 0800 (to give me an early feel good energy kick (and it's working!! Although it is an odd feeling to feel like you are on a high first thing in the morning))
Pregabalin - 75mg three times a day (for shingles pain on the left side, that I contacted more than a year ago as a side effect of the fateful radiation and chemotherapy (chemo for short)
Hydromorphone - 2mg - four (4) times a day - morning, noon, evening, bedtime (AND as a breakthrough, sometimes, like early morning, say 0300, when the pain has spiked for some unknown reason
Hydromorph contin - 9mg - slow acting (45 mg total - three times a day - morning 18mg, evening 18mg, late evening 9 mg)
Hydromorph contin - 3mg - slow acting (6 mg total - twice a day - morning 3mg, evening 3mg)
So there you have it.
Pain is vastly under control. My brain works again; Sometimes I was actually screaming in pain. Sandra will attest to that, and that I could not think past basic human needs like eating, sleeping, and going to the bathroom.
Now speaking of the bathroom. First of all, I will be on a catheter for the rest of my life. That is very likely since it is generally agreed that the risks involved in the known prostate operations are equal to or greater than leaving me on the catheter as status quo.
Now, I'm thinking of some expressions that are going to have to change in my household. Apparently "hang on to your shorts" is a time-warp of "hang on to your hat." Since "hang on to your shorts" isn't kinda appropriate to the Arctic, and "hang on to your hat" is archaic - It goes back to the days when men wore hats, that's according to Mr Google - So here goes - in that same vane of "here goes nothin nowhere" I propose "grab your catheter" as an appropriate expletive or saying when quick action is recommended in the Malcolm household!
Another thing I have to do for the rest of my life besides wear a catheter. I have to have immunotherapy for the rest of my life too, which is an IV treatment of Nivolumab, a drug that came on to the market in 2018, i.e., quite recently. The guy who developed the basic premise for using drugs like Nivolumab to target and kill cancer cells got the Nobel Prize for medicine in 2018, only two years ago. This is where my immune system is trained to target cancer cells and kill them, leaving normal cells alone. For example, on July 7 of this year I will fly to Yellowknife to take an IV treatment of Nivolumab, and every month after that.
I hear you asking "why aren't you taking Nivolumab in Inuvik?"- and I can say that the same question is being asked at the Stanton Hospital in Yellowknife.
That's it for now folks.
