Today I met with the doctor who is leading the clinical trial I have mentioned before on this blog. He believes I am a candidate for the trial and so we are moving on to the next steps.
Next week I will have my blood drawn for lab work, and for a chest x-ray and a CT/PET scan. Next I will meet with the surgeon who will be doing the macrobeads insertion. If everything looks good, I will probably have the surgery on June 4th.
I don't know if I mentioned this before, but for the past couple of months, I have been having a pain in my left ribs. It seems the pain is hitting some nerves, so the pain radiates through my lower back, left shoulder and arm. It has been pretty consistent and steady for awhile now. Sometimes tolerable, sometime excruciating. My oncologist prescribed Oxyocodone for me, which helps a little, but wears off after a few hours. Plus I'm not crazy about taking all of those drugs, but it's the only thing that gives me some relief. The pain also keeps me up at night, which means I need to take Ambien to help me sleep. All of that did effect me on our trip to Australia, but we still had a great trip, and I'll talk about that trip in another post.
As the clinical trial progresses, I'll keep you all updated as to how things go.
Kevin
Kevin I just thought I would ask if your Doc has considered a pain relief patch instead of oral meds? I wear a Norspan patch and it delivers a steady level of pain relief 24/7 ... diesn't take the pain away completely but takes the edge off the pain and it makes it more tolerable because you don't get the peaks and troughs ....
ReplyDeleteoh also my TENS machine is my best friend!!!
Good luck with the coming trial my friend ...
Aussie hugs, Kay :)