Kerri, I am so sorry to read of your latest doctor visit. You know we are here to listen and help get you thru this. Its ok to rant and be upset, we get you!!!! Please try to take this in small bites to help so you dont get overwhelmed. First, you have cancer, next you are beginning treatment very soon, third it will NOT be fun at all, fourth you WILL get thru this and recover.

Now, knowing everything you do already makes it hard to only think of the big picture. But if you focus on other things it will make this so much easier to get thru. My idea to help you take your mid off your troubles would be for you to make today a fun day for you and your family. Go to the park, have a picnic, take a walk with your husband, go to the drive in movies, play mini golf, go out for ice cream, take a drive in the country, stop at roadside stands and pick up some fresh veggies, get some flowers and replant them (mums are great this time of year), go to a county fair or carnival, if you are near the shore go to the beach, etc..... Just get out there and make the most of today, it really will help to make you feel alot better.

Good luck next week!!!!

Kerri,

Sooo sorry that you will have to have the rads/chemo but we will also watch you like a hawk and do whatever we can to help.

Thank you, dear friends. Sometimes the demon comes out of the box in the wee hours of the night. Some minutes, hours, and days are better than others.

I can always count on you all to bring me back.

Just a random question that I can't ask my team right now due to it being a Sunday. I have a horrible headache and tylenol isn't cutting it. I don't suppose I could take ibuprofen at this point due to its blood-thinning properties? I keep forgetting to ask. I'll have to write this one down. I just need some relief right now.

Thanks so much. Love and health to you all.
xoxo,
Kerri

Kerri,
I don't know the correct medical answer to that, but it is important to get rid of your headache, too & if ibuprofen is the ticket, why not? You aren't having surgery, where blood thinning would really be an issue. You're having the shorter chemos I think. They are somewhat easier to bounce back from.

I suppose/hope you don't have your headache anymore. Yes, I too would get to a situation where I did not know if I could take this, or eat that, or whatever, and then would try to remember to ask. Write it down, make a running list of questions as they come up. You'll get through this. I felt like a light weight going through all that radiation/chemo stuff, but you know what, it didn't matter, cause like you, I'm tough.

Anne

Kerri, do you have any vicoden? I was told not to take ibuprofen during treatment but vicoden was safe to take and helped a lot with the headaches I got from my first Erbitux infusions.

Be well,
Tracy

Kerri

Wishing you the best with treatments starting Wednesday and even better after treatments end.

Kerri

Ibuprofen for a cancer patient with recurrence! Even Vicodin sounds too light IMO. Each time I had radiation and chemo, my RO would prescribe me 100 Percocets for the headaches, and referred pain and general crap. Trust me, it helps a lot with anxiety also as well as just laying there on that lead table.
Heck my ENT gave me a script for 50 percocet when she did the biopsy. NSAIDs never did much for me.
Seriously, pain medication is your friend at this time but under the DEA rules, YOU HAVE TO ASK and ask firmly but politely. [quote] Hint: the correct answer to "On a scale of 1 to 10 how would you rate your pain?", is always 8 or higher. [/quote]
Oh, and being angry, yes indeed, normal healthy reaction.
Charm

The ibuprofen with have cleared your system by the start of treatment - Wednesday. Don't suffer. Take the pill. Hugs

Hi Kerri

Probably a bit late for your headache but you raise an important question about the use of NSAIDS during treatment. Alex was also told to avoid NSAIDS and at the time we just accepted it and didn't question why (lot of other stuff going on at the time).

As Alex was not scheduled for surgery, one wouldn't expect that bleeding time / platelet aggregation would be an issue (unless they expected him to gush when they stuck him with so many needles ). At the time, I assumed it was a precautionary step to give him nothing that might interfere with potential heroic measures should things go pear-shaped (which they did).

But now I wonder if there is an interaction with the chemo drugs or even radiation that might preclude them for some reason. Or it might just be that adding more pressure to the kidney when one is taking cisplatin is not a good idea.

This question has been asked a few times on the forum and I haven't seen an explanation - just recommendations not to do it.
Get advice from a proper doctor - there might be a really important factor that none of us know about.

Karen

PS Ibuprofen is one of the shorter acting NSAIDS and your platelets should start going back to normal within 24 hours. Aspirin is at the other end of the scale requires generation of brand new platelets and can take a week to normalise.

Thanks to all who commented on the ibuprofen question.

I actually took 10 mg of oxycodone and it literally did nothing. Some time later, I broke out into a dripping sweat and thought I was going to vomit. I know this wasn't a reaction to the meds because I have been taking them since my tonsillectomy. All I knew was that I had to lay down and cool off fast. I put ice on my forehead and called my sister, who is an NP. She thought I was likely having a migraine.

I took some Excedrin and went to bed with the ice. I felt significantly better in a couple of hours. So, I guess that combination did the trick. I just had to lay perfectly still or else I thought I would get sick. I've never had a migraine, to my knowledge, but that was awful. I feel badly for those who get them frequently.

Thankfully, Dan was home to take over with the kids. I'm lucky to have him for many reasons.

Thanks for all of the advice.

Charm, I'll keep that number in mind. I have to ask it of my patients all the time and it's a PITA! Some people have such a hard time answering it, I just give them the smiley face chart that we use for kids. It has been studied that the most reliable way to measure a patient's pain level is to have them make a hash mark on the 10 cm horizontal line. The left side is "no pain" and the right side is "worst pain ever". The distance is measured against a scale that was developed by these researchers (I have no idea of the developers) and that calculates your pain score. Although it has been determined and accepted to be the most reliable way to quantify a subjective thing, such as pain, no one ever uses it because it takes too much time! So, I don't feel so badly making up some arbitrary number, such as 8/10 on reporting my pain. The insurance companies don't care, Medicare doesn't care, so why should I care? In fact, if I forgot to get a pain scale report on a given treatment day, I'd always put down 7/10...a good, safe number that doesn't really matter to anyone but the patient anyway!