Hello, all.
Gordon in Atl here again- I just started RAD this week....IMRT- which I wouldn't have known to ask for had it not been for this forum, and am already experiencing significant pain in the tumor (Rt tonsil) area.
I was having slight pain there before treatment began (on Tues), but it has rapidly grown fairly intense. I see my regular (pain meds) doc on Mon, but am beginning to wonder if I can deal with this much pain through the weekend with just oxycodone- which seems to be more of a "knockout" drug rather than pain reduction med for me.
Am I just experiencing psychosomatic pain? I was plenty worked up and scared before I started, (see prev post) but thought I had (with your help) a grip on it. My mind has been known to be a srange and wonderful thing that can whisk me from contentment and peace to absolute cold-blooded terror in a matter of moments, but I THOUGHT I could face this RT challenge with reasonable calm and equanimity.
"In my mind" or not, the pain is real, and I have been advised to ask for time-release morphine, as well as 10-15mg morph pills for "breakthrough" pain, as well as liquid morph directly for the throat when I see the doc on Mon. This seems like an excessive amount of morphine medication to me, and also quite early in the game-not even into 2nd week yet to be asking for the "big guns". Any thoughts or experiences in this dept? Would really appreciate the feedback.
Many thanks, Gordon.

You are not experiencing psychosomatic pain...radiation treatments when they start to have their impact, HURT. There is no reason to wait all weekend in pain. A phone call to the doctor should get you something stronger. In medicine today there is no reason to suffer pain of the disease or of the treatments. You need to have all levels of the medications available to you, and you can determine if something stronger is needed. Don't suffer through this.

definitely agree here with Brian, rad hurts, and with the weekend coming, call the doc quick, there is no reason to be in pain, and if nothing else I`ve learned the past few years is weekends always seem to bring problems...In fact I just came back from dragging Frank to the docs, cause I sensed an infection brewing, and I was not going to spend the weekend watching it brew.....again the pain is real and there is no need for you to suffer through the weekend !!!! Dee

Thanks, guys! I don't believe in pain, either, so if nothing else, I'll just SLEEP the weekend away (my "normal" reaction to the oxycodone). :-)
I'll be seeing the doc 8a on Mon, so I'll get something/things appropriate. I see the wisdom in getting "all levels" of meds, as I don't need the big guns ALL the time!
I also "steered" some other head/neck cancer patients that were in the waiting room this afternoon to the OCF. When I realized how uninformed they were, I was doubly thankful to have found this site when I did!