Jaws Clenched Tight!

Do they happen to have an abbreviation for something that would mean something like “jaws clenched tight” as in trying to keep from throwing up. Or what was it Sunni called it, “blapping?”

I’ve been sick for several days. I recently doubled up on my long term and my short-term pain meds and it helps a bit better, but not enough. And the meds cause constipation, which cause a whole bunch of problems all by themselves.

So, tonight I got to experience a whole lotta jaw clenching although I had nothing in my stomach to toss.

I called the doc and he recommended Milk of Magnesia for the constipation. And I’m to double up on the long term, 40mg twice a day. And since I had already doubled the short term meds, I was to double them again up to every three hours if necessary.

I was also directed to get something else for the nausea/vomiting but before I could document this, I received a phone call that caused me to forget that part of my instructions. So, I don’t remember anything else about what I’m supposed to do.

One thing I need to tell the doc is I have a nose bleed. It’s not your normal everyday nosebleed. The left side is bleeding slowly and building up a big blood clot. I finally was able to expel a clot that was the size of my little finger up to the first joint in three easy installments! :-) But if something like that is going on in my nose, what’s going on in the rest of my body?

Hopefully I’ll remember more before Ben gets home.

Kunolunkwa, y te quiero!

Down This Road Again

All in all, I’d much rather roll over and try to get back to sleep. But I had promised you a post that I will not be able to keep my promise on. Sorry! The least I could do is explain my failure.

I don’t know if you noticed, I’ve posted my pain meds schedule in the “Sticky Scheduler.” So if I mention that if I forgot to take my 8AM NS, my naproxen sodium, you’ll know where it fits into the pain med schedule.

Or if I mention that I took an extra ST-ST 5mg at 6PM, you’ll be able to figure out how it fits into the overall scheme of pain relief.

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I’ve been sick all day. First it was one thing that eventually, if only partially, resolved itself, although I did not take my 8AM NS because I thought it might be causing stomach pain. I did take my 10AM meds normally. My first issue resolved itself somewhat between 10AM and Noon.

But, and I don’t know if they’re related, the second issue, extreme pain in the back, manifested itself and I spent all afternoon trying to resolve that issue.

I ended up taking my 8PM NS early at 6PM, but two hours early after missing it for 10 hours isn’t a problem. And I needed it; my hip joint was really starting to hurt. But I had talked to one of those 24 Hour Health Care Nurses about the first issue and her point was I shouldn’t have to suffer any pain at all.

So, hurting like I was, I took an extra PC-ST 5mg at 6PM. So that meant that I took 10mg of fast acting pain relief. And if it helped, I couldn’t tell. Maybe it helped me sleep a bit, but not so’s I could tell.

So, I have had this second issue before; I just don’t remember if I ever knew what the problem was. And, I have had more of this issue lately, just not as bad as today. I’d sure like to know what is going on.

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On another front, my crutches are irritating my underarms. I have a “scrape” under the left arm, and a skin tag that is extremely irritated and sore under the right arm. Makes me not want to use the crutches.

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It has taken me over an hour to put this little bit of a post together. It shouldn’t be an issue when I’m feeling well, but when I’m feeling sick, it takes me a while to think about and put the proper words together. So that’s why I didn’t attempt anything intellectual today. And I don’t know when I can expect to feel better, so I won’t even try to make that promise again.

Kunolunkwa, y te quiero!

Three More Tattoos

Boy, am I adding to my list of tattoos. I believe that these are rose buds, as well, but with all the other ink on my skin I’ll have to wait until I can take a bath and clean the sites.

And I don’t know if I can post pictures of these tats as close as they are to body parts that most Americans say they have problems with. I might end up becoming a sex offender and have to get registered and put on a list. I wonder if just talking about it means that I am violating any laws. Hmmmm!

Still hurtin’, still drowsy, and they have allowed me to take my pain meds whenever I want now. For example, I went out to take care of business this AM and to pick up a few things. I got home pretty tuckered and decided to lie down and catch a few z’s. I had taken my meds at 10:00 and was waiting until 2:00 to take more. But laying there made my kidneys seem to hurt, spoiling a perfectly good nap. So, at noon, I took another pill, hoping that it would allow me to take my nap. If I could take a double dose at 2:00, why couldn’t I take one at noon and one at 2:00? Apparently, it doesn’t hurt a thing except make me drowsy.

Speaking of drowsy, it’s kinda funny. I’ll be laying here, reading an article online, with my finger poised over the mouse button, when I’ll awake with a start and notice that the sound that woke me up was the scroll bar hitting the end of its range. So, I back up and start reading the article from the last point I can remember. And yet I have trouble falling asleep.

Well, I have nothing planned for tomorrow, so there’s a couple of posts I want to get written. And since it takes me so long to do the thinking, the typing, and the proofreading that I’ll probably need all day.

So, there’s an email that I want to get done tonight, so I’m going to end this one right here. No, right here! NO, RIGHT HERE!!

Kunolunkwa, y te quiero.

And A Belated Happy Birthday…

…to the last of the Aries birthdays in the family. Since it was yesterday, and I did post yesterday, I should have mentioned it. I am sorry I forgot, and offer my humblest apologies.

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I don’t know what is going on with me. I have been having trouble sleeping despite taking plenty of Valerian Root and melatonin. I took 12 mg of melatonin last night and didn’t fall asleep until some time well after 2:00AM. Usually that would put me right out! Then I drifted in and out of slumber all through the rest of the night. I didn’t finally start to get some serious sleep until after my 10:00AM meds. I’m wondering if the pain is still an issue, or if the little caffeine contained in the green tea is causing all the problems.

I did the ‘fever with no sweats’ vs. the ‘sweats with no fever’ thing last night so I tried the Aleve (naproxen sodium) that the doctor recommended. Now, the naproxen is an NSAID so I can't say that I wasn't curious to find out what would happen. I got up this AM after taking the naproxen once, ONCE, and found that most of the pain in my hip joint WENT AWAY!!! I could walk almost normal without any aids and with very little pain. What’s up with that? The meloxicam NSAID that my PCP prescribed didn’t seem to help, much at all but plain ol’ naproxen let me have my joint back. The only issue is that I have to be very careful with my stomach and any NSAIDS.

Speaking of stomachs, I haven’t had much experience with constipation, until now. All of the recent pain meds have overpowered my gastrointestinal tract leaving me with another type of pain - constipation. The chemotherapy almost always guaranteed having diarrhea so my experience level with constipation is very low. The Dulcolax hasn’t been working so I needed to try a Fleet enema. That’s what I have been reduced to, giving myself enemas! It helped but I can tell that more attention is needed in this area. It causes problems with appetite and eating.

The fever/sweats have contributed as well. Although I try to stay hydrated, I lose a lot of moisture through the skin. That means that I don’t have it in the intestinal tract to lubricate things. I’m still not sure how I’m going to handle this on a regular basis. I have gone back to the sugar-free Benefiber chewables. That should help a bit. But as I said, I’m not sure what I need to do.

So, I have to get prepared for a Social Security interview tomorrow so I’m going to cut this short tonight.

Kunolunkwa, y te quiero!

Back To Work

No, not me! Ben!

I like spending time with my son—with ALL my kids really—seeing as how I only have two that are really, truly mine. But Amy isn’t here right now. So, if I don’t get too much posted on the weekends, I hope that you’ll understand.

Now there are other things that I’d rather be doing with Ben—snorkeling comes to mind—but if watching TV shows like we did in the old days are all I can manage right now, then that’s what I’ll do. Now, I also don’t want to monopolize his usual one day off per week—this weekend was unusual for him for now—especially if he has other things to do, so, just like my side effects, it can get to be a balancing act. But thankfully, we haven’t gotten to that point yet.

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Reading my usual sites I ran across an interesting article from Bill St. Clair over at End The War On Freedom. With a title like that can you understand why I just might like this site? It was funny that the hospital blocked his site due to weapons!! LOL

Anyway, he came up with an interesting article this morning entitled “Cancer Therapy Without Side Effects Nearing Trials.” Guaranteed to get me to read it. No Side Effects!!!!!

It seems that nanoparticles can be targeted specifically on cancer cells, then radio frequency wavelengths can be run through the body, causing the particles to heat up, causing the cancer cells to heat up, killing them, but not the healthy cells around them!

Now, right off the top of my head, I’d say that this has a very good chance of working if they can get the cancer cells sufficiently targeted. So, there is hope for you if you ever develop cancer in the not too distant future.

However, being the pessimist that I am, am I to understand that the pharmaceutical industry is going to stand by and let someone start killing off cancer cells without them getting a big piece of the pie? And the two organizations who can do this for them are the FDA and the AMA. This scenario is almost identical to the one that lead to the suppression of the Royal Raymond Rife technology that was killing cancer way back in the 1940s!

BTW, I recently ran across an interesting article entitled “What the American Medical Association hopes you never learn about its true history.” Morris Fishbein, the guy who brought Rife to his knees, features prominently in the story.

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Now, I’m not here intentionally spying on you, but I do like to know who is visiting my blog, what they are looking for, and where they are located. So I have installed a program called SiteMeter. It has led me to learn all sorts of things.

For example, I would have learned that Sunni Maravillosa—see my links—had put a link on her page to let people come visit me via my SiteMeter reports. Fortunately, I think I noticed the link on her page before I had checked SiteMeter, though.

Now, I end up having to make some logical “guesses” on occasion. I happen to have a friend down towards Madison whom I haven’t told yet about my condition. But we also have several friends in common. So when I started getting hits from the Madison area by someone using a news aggregator, I kinda figured it was him. Not for sure yet, just an educated guess.

So I was kinda surprised when I started getting hits from another blogging type of site, so I had to “checka out” as Rawley used to say.

If you recall a few days ago I had mentioned pulling together all the blogs that are talking about the big “C” and posting it somewhere. But as someone--it may even be the Bible--said, “There’s nothing new under the sun.” Someone’s already did a great job of pulling these blogs together. I found out when I started getting hits linked to me from that site.

The site is called Blogged.com, and here’s my page on the site. So, if looking for more cancer blogs or almost any other type of blog is your thing, head on over and see what can be found.

One of the things I noticed, being a former QA kinda guy, is they have a rating system for each blog. And my rating right now is 8.3 out of 10. Now the editor of Blogged.com is the only one who has rated me so far. But, since he sees a lot of these blogs, I thought that an 83% was pretty good. Maybe it’s so low ‘cause I use words like “kinda.”

Now, I’m not going to try to find out what the criteria for a good blog are and go nuts trying to hit a perfect 10. I have too many other things to do. But Amy, it looks like we’ve narrowed your focus a bit! :-P

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I have totally switched over to just one pain med with two different versions: a time released, and a short acting version. It took me a while to get a control system in place so I could remember to take my meds when I needed them, especially in the middle of the night. If I can’t get comfortable due to the pain, then I can’t sleep, and I end up dragging all day. And dragging around all day in pain is no fun at all.

After taking some time to get used to the meds I’ve come to the conclusion that the meds aren’t doing the job. The pain in the hip joint doesn’t respond to the new meds as well as the liver pain. But I still have trouble getting comfortable at night in bed and end up tossing and turning all night.

So, I called the Clinic today and described my situation. I got a call back informing me that my “label directions” have changed. First I’m to try doubling the time-released meds and see how that works. If that doesn’t help enough, then I’m to try doubling the short acting meds and even start dosing every three hours if necessary. Without the acetaminophen, that shouldn’t be an issue. And I should get used to the dose fairly quickly so I won’t be running around all tuckered out.

I just checked my temp and found that I’m at 100.4 degrees. Now, just by feeling my forehead I wouldn’t have guessed that it was that high. Skin temp doesn't always match internal temps. And I have checked it on occasion with a mercury-filled glass thermometer just to double check. And later tonight, my temp will be fine, but I’ll be sweating “like a stuck pig,” as they sometimes say around here. But, I’m to take naproxen sodium for that condition. I’m curious to see how that works. And it’s also an NSAID. Maybe it’ll help the hip and the shoulder.

So, I’m going to put this issue of my blog “to bed” now, pull together the garbage to go out, and wait breathlessly for Ben to come home.

Kunolunkwa, y te quiero!

And remember, "As a juror, I will exercise my 1000-year-old duty to arrive at a verdict, not just on the basis of the facts of a particular case, or instructions I am given, but through my power to reason, my knowledge of the Bill of Rights, and my individual conscience. When needful, I will judge the law itself." -L. Neil Smith