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10/31/2006: "Chronic Pain"
I have been fortunate in my life not to have experienced much chronic pain. A little lower back trouble, but that would come and go based on how much lifting I would do. My mom lives with pain daily. She has one knee that has been replaced and the other needs to be. Her shoulders are also a mess. And she has fought arthritis as long as I can remember. My dad tells me about waking up at night to her crying from the pain. My sister in-law, my friend Julie, workmates, and other friends, all have chronic pain that is debilitating at times.
The problem with having a tumor on your spinal column is that there are so many nerves that run between the vertebrae and travel through your body. I woke up at 5am this morning in pain, the same one that has been bothering me for about a month now. It can range from the right upper back, to my right tricep, to the elbow, the forearm and through the fingers. After returning from Safeway in search of a painkillers, I put the search terms “C7” and “nerve” into Google. The first hit, Spine Health, gave me this: “Pinched nerve at C7. This can cause pain/numbness that runs down the arm to the middle finger.” Other search results lead me to research the Radial Nerve.
I had a conversation yesterday with my radiologist to see if this pain is a side effect of radiation or an indication that the tumor is growing. After comparing my recent MRI with one taken before radiation, he felt that the radiation was successful and that the tumor was decreasing in size. However, the soft tissue of the tumor around the never could be hardening or their could be an inflammation causing pressure. We may look at cortisone shots in that area as a source of relief.
Mentally and physically, a person can handle sharp pain for a little while. But when it is consistent and there is no sign of relief in the future, it becomes a whole other animal. It affects your personality and your patience. To this point, I have avoided pain medication so that I can monitor the pain and keep my body free of toxins. But when you wake up in the middle of the night with tears in your eyes, all you care about is relief.