Having had the chemo on Friday, and knowing from before that any effects will take a few days at least to come to the fore we settled down for a quiet weekend. Unfortunately it didn't work out quite that way. For some time I have had a lump that's fairly hard, under the skin around the site of the pinning op. This lump may well be a part of the post-operative recovery as all the bits that were disturbed by the pinning settle down. However there seems to be a pressure on the radial nerve that runs down through the arm to the hand and it has been causing a very persistent ache all through the arm, and creating pins and needles and numbness in my right hand. Added to that the radial nerve is used to control all those dexterous movements we make with our fingers and so my hand is pretty much useless right now.
Because the pain is nerve pain we have increased the dose I take of gabapentin which is specific to nerve pain, but I have spent the last two nights struggling to lay comfortably, or to get much sleep at all.
We did get a call from the orthopaedic consultant's secretary who said he isn't overly concerned about the swelling but we are going to get a fresh x-ray before the review on Wednesday just to be safe.
This week we are having the Short Synachten test as well to ascertain if there is any ongoing cortisol problem. Other than that it's a bit of a waiting game for any effects from the chemo. I guess I just need to accept that tiredness, aches and pains and feeling unwell along the way are part of the next few months for me and I had better come to terms with that.
The sudden realisation that you have cancer hits you like a sledgehammer. On 9th February after 2 months of tests and all sorts thats what they told me. In more ways than one it's a life-changing moment and your mind goes into overdrive thinking all kinds of worst case scenarios.
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