So...
There has been a noticeable gap between my blog posts. If you continue reading, you'll find out why. I'm about to cover 2+ months of what has been going on so I'm splitting this up into at least 2 parts, but it'll likely be 3 or 4. I swear I'll try to do them a few days apart. But whenever I seem to try to post to my blog lately, something happens to me to prevent me from updating it. I'm leery even now of saying anything, curses and jinxes be damned.
To kind of recap a bit, I'm going to take this back to November. I'd been off the Yervoy for a bit, weaning off my Prednisone, and started back on the Vem. Around Thanksgiving time we had a monthly check up that confirmed the tumors were still shrinking, but I had developed a pulmonary embolism in my chest and needed to start on a daily injection of anti-coagulate medicine.
Queue about a month later. The Vem causes fatigue, in conjunction with the reduction of Prednisone and my general house-bound self not getting too much exercise, I began to feel very tired. Especially in my legs. Doing even the most normal things took effort and exhausted me. But during the last week of December and the first couple days of January, I finally started to feel better. I felt not as tired and fatigued, and my legs felt stronger.
January 4th. I told me wife I wanted to go out to eat. We hadn't been on a dinner date in a long time due to my health. Since I was finally feeling on the up and up, I wanted to make the most of it. Getting out of the shower, I reached for my towel and felt something pinch on my side. It was a sudden, sharp pain but it was gone as quickly as it came. I went about the rest of the night not thinking anything of it, but subconsciously I was guarding it... thinking I maybe pulled a muscle or something.
Later that night as I was getting into bed, I removed my shirt. This time the pain was centered in my back. It was sharper, more painful, and stuck around a bit longer. The pain radiated out from my back to my sides. I winced and cried out too loudly and woke my wife. She got up and we tried to figure this out. The pain went away slowly, but I was fearful of getting into bed. I was scared that I might lay down and be either really sore in the morning, or not able to get up at all because of the pain. I gingerly decided to lay down and take some Tylenol and see what happens.
The next morning I wasn't in any pain, but it was a real hassle getting out of the bed. My back muscles were really tense and the slightest movement could send shooting pains to my sides. I had no idea how I pulled a muscle this bad in my back, merely reaching for a bath towel. The decision was to call the doctors on Monday to report my injury and see how it goes for the next couple days. If it got worse, it would have been a trip to the hospital.
Well, the next week seemingly got better. I was prescribed Lortab to help with the pain at night, so I could sleep. The pain of getting in and out of bed was reducing day by day (I developed a technique to keep my back straight so I was bending or twisting so much). In fact, by the next weekend I felt so good my wife and I went out to eat again with some friends. My back was still tender, and I moved very carefully to prevent myself from re-injuring it.
January 14th. My back pain pretty much behind me now (I only felt a little soreness now and then, usually after getting out of bed), I decided to try to resume being social and active. I planned on making a trip to the grocery store. As I was getting around I had an even better idea. I would take a Lortab now, go pick up the few items we needed to last us util the weekend, then come home and take a nap by the time the pain medication really started to kick in. I was all ready to go when I reached for a glass of water and felt the same sharp pain return again.
I waited for it to go away this time. It didn't. Even the slightest movement was sending shooting pains through my back and into my sides. Luckily the pain medication was kicking in and dulled it a bit, but I could still feel it. I never went out that day because I didn't want to be alone if it got worse and decided to stay home, rest a bit and see if it would dissipate like it did before.
It didn't.
(cont in pt 2)
No comments:
Post a Comment