Treatments over; where are the bells and whistles?

      Well, I've been waiting so long for this.  A week and a half ago was the last of my radiation.  I finished on Thursday, March 21st.   I got through that first weekend knowing that I wouldn't see an immediate improvement but, hell, the symptoms even got worse.  No fair.  We increased the dose of the pain medicines and it seemed to help a little, but the nights were awful.  At four in the morning, trying to swallow a pain pill, all the while your throat feels like burning embers, was misery.  I waited till Monday and Jane talked to Dr. Ying's Nurse Practitioner.  We decided to go with a long acting pain patch, also recommended by a good friend with a lot of cancer pain experience. That way I didn't have to swallow as much.  That sounded better already.   We would also try a liquid narcotic to help soothe my throat right at the cause of the pain.  By this time I was taking almost all of my nutrition through my G-tube.  Glad I have that or I would have starved to death by now.  Don't get me wrong, I don't like the G-tube (nearly hate it) but it is necessary, for sure.
      Everyday,  Jane and I made little changes to the medicine routine; a little here and a little change there. We asked other patients and their caregivers what might help and what didn't, which has been a big help.  Thanks.
     Pain, what a weird little variable;  always changes throughout the day with ever changing multiples of color.  Symptoms are hard to describe, hard to know where or why they are happening at any certain time.  There is a condition called, Congenital Insensitivity to Pain  (CIP).  Sounds great, hey.  Lets say we all had to pick a disease.  That one may be a good one to consider.  No Pain, cool. I'll take that one.  Not so fast.
     Through the years, I have seen 3 patients with this syndrome.  It is a nightmare.  It is a syndrome that shortens lives and leaves them incapacitated through much of the childhood and teens.
Injuries don't heal.  Infections don't get better. The human neural system doesn't use its protective mechanisms to let their tissues rest long enough to heal.  Same for broken bones. They don't feel the pain and are left unprotected. The patient will begin to walk on the break before and the bone doesn't heal.  If they have plates, screws, or rods put in their bones, they have a higher rate of infection  because they don't hurt where the wound is or they begin walking or using the bone too early and the plate or screws fail.  Inflammation increases and protective response is lost and infection and non-union take hold. Try telling a five year old not to walk on his or her leg because it is broken even though it doesn't hurt.  So, in a strange sort of way, we should all be grateful for the pain that we feel. 
     Ok, I can buy that.  I just don't like the intensity side of the the equation.  Sure, let me feel some pain,  But does it have to be the extreme pain of "ultimate suffering" (from The Princess Bride), level 10, to get my attention?  No.
I will take a level 2 or 3, thank you, very much. But, I guess it doesn't work like that.
     So for the last 10 days, since my radiation finished, the symptoms got worse and worse.  It was a real emotional bummer to be done with treatment but then have the symptoms worsen day by day and night by night.  Emotionally and physically it was draining.  After almost two weeks of being finished with the treatments there is finally some good news.  Yesterday,  Monday, March 31, was the first day I felt like I was starting to turn back towards the sun.  The pain in my throat eased a small bit; but it was there, I felt it easing up.  My energy was a little higher; I was able to be up a couple extra hours during the day. There was a brightening of my attitude.
     I hope I've reached the end of the pipe in the Shawshank Redemption sewer pipe crawl

.  One hell of a pipe to get through, but as you are reaching the end, the smell of fresh air and the chance of anticipation of good health and happiness is overwhelming.
Namaste