Sunday, April 29, 2012

Cold to the Bone Chill

I think I had my last PET scan in October, and since that time I seem to have been doing pretty well.  Mostly I've been trying to find a solution for my stiff neck/headache problem which is fallout from having a tumor in my neck and then being treated by a drug that has muscle cramps as a side effect.

My oncologist says the Revlimid I was taking doesn't have headache as a side effect.  Sure, except my neck.  

In pursuit of a pain free experience of life, ever hopeful that I can find a "cure" I applied an NSAID topical cream to my neck, and my neck felt better.  But then I started experiencing side effects.  Nausea. 

I have over the past several weeks experienced a chill.  It starts in my head and goes down my spine and is disconcerting.  It's the kind of chill that you get just before you vomit.  Like you are just experiencing sudden cold.  No goosebumps; just cold.

Well, last night it was very bad, but the feeling went away.   It was somewhat more intense than it had been the last two times I felt it. 

But why do I get it?

Let me speculate:  I took an NSAID the last two times it happened, although much earlier in the day.   I had not taken Skelaxin for a couple of days.

I wondered if I had been sensitized to NSAID side effects, so just using something that used to be no problem would result in nausea and a very strange feeling.

Could it possibly be a withdrawal symptom for Skelaxin?


Saturday, April 28, 2012

Blurp! Just a little Tipsy last Night

I enjoyed a glass of Malbec last night.  It was an old bottle of Castello del Diablo left in the refrigerator for at least six months which, if you like cheap wine, is one of the better ones.

It is Chilean, which helps account for the price.

Maybe I did have a bit too much, but my liver seemed to take it pretty well.   

It's the rest of me that isn't feeling well this morning.  Bit of a headache, neck getting twitchy.  Just like that slightly hung over feeling I used to experience regularly in my college days.

I took a couple of Advil a bit after breakfast and am waiting to discover if my stomach will start to feel upset after a while.

As you are probably guessing by now I am looking for OTC drugs that I can use to supplement the Skelaxin which is a muscle relaxant.

It has been a hit or miss proposition.

Drugs are burdened with side effects, which are unclear until the drugs are taken for a while.

The only prescription topical NSAID I tried made me sick even at a low dose; and as a result I studied how that class of drugs works and discovered the peculiarities of prostaglandin suppression.

I'm looking for some topical Ibuprofen right now which I expect to work better than the Aspercreme, but not work so well that is suppresses my prostaglandin production to the point where I get an upset stomach.

Well, it might work.

So I will probably revert to a Skelaxin in a bit to deal with the stiff neck and headache I have today.

I have emailed my family doctor, who I see on Wednesday to help me manage my neck as a tension headache.

I wonder what kind of treatment he'll come up with.  I read about tension headaches on the web and the article said that one of the treatments, aside from a frontal assault on the pain with wonderful drugs, are some varieties of anti-depressants.

Just looking at the caveats of those kind of drugs, I might not be able to take NSAIDs with them because of the potential for bleeding problems. I can feel the potential pain from that already. 

I'm wondering how a drug like Paxil, a GSK antidepressant will make me feel?

I've been thinking that I'm probably a mentally deficient depressive anyway, maybe I'll get cheered up with that drug.

Of course the fact that some drugs have strange effects on my central nervous system that they don't on regular people leads me to wonder what sort of mental side effects I will develop.

Maybe I'll become supper happy and really piss everybody off.   Nothing like a personality change to give your friends the willies.

It has been long enough that the Advil had kicked in and my headache and neck feel a bit different.  Advil doesn't work very well on this headache, but it does take the edge off.

We'll see how this works.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Oncologist Visit Today

It was a fun day, visited my oncologist and had a conversation about my general condition and of course, my neck pain.  He basically said that my headache does not appear to be the result of tumor, and headache isn't listed as a side effect of Revlimid, and since the neurologist thinks the stenosis doesn't matter: I have a tension headache.

I am amazed at how often diagnosis are ad hoc.

At this point I seriously regret having participated in the Revlimid study.  The stuff really did a number on my neck and my doctors talk about it like it just isn't so.

In terms of general condition, I'm doing pretty well.  My stamina is somewhat less than what it should be, and of course my neck hurts, but aside from those two things, I'm OK.

I got a copy of my blood test and the white cell count is 4.7 which is lower than it used to be before chemo, but now is considered normal.  It's just .2 over the normal threshold since normal is 4.5 to 11.0.

For some reason my chloride level is just 2 points under normal.

My Absolute Lymphs are just a little low, and my doctor said that's normal, there is a long recovery time for that after chemotherapy.

He suggested that I should have my family doctor manage my neck pain, at least until I get into the Headache Institute in Chapel Hill.

What do you do for a tension headache?

I tried some Naproxin the other day and I felt some of the nausea coming on.  Maybe after chemo my prostaglandins are not so great.


Saturday, April 21, 2012

Back to Basics

The Nausea got worse and was persistent.  I had several days of worsening upset stomach.  That is a listed side effect of Voltaren Gel so I stopped applying it to my neck. 

I have been off it for about a week.


The nausea cleared up after a couple of days without the Gel, but what do I do about my neck now?

I did not feel like going back to Aspercreme since Aspirin has the same problem.

NSAIDs suppress the production of Prostaglandins which are important in the stomach lining.

It appears that the more effective the gel/creme the more it is likely to cause a problem.

I decided to go back to Penetrex because it seems to work.  After the Aspercreme and the Voltaren Gel I'm surprised at how well it works.  I'm hoping that since it's "natural" it won't cause any major problems.

Over the last several days, I have had ample opportunity to experience the genuine headaches without a drug to ameliorate their effects.  It took a while for the stiffness and pain to come back.

The Penetrex helps a lot, but some pain and stiffness still leaks out.

I take Skelaxin for that.


Saturday, April 14, 2012

Singing the wonders of a new drug.

Voltaren Gel has been a real relief.

I've been using it off and on for about a week, and it has greatly reduced the soreness in my neck. 

I applied it before I went to work on Friday, and after about three hours at the office the headache in the deeper muscles started to come through.

Today I noticed a little nausea, and since this is a COX-2 NSAID it may cause some stomach upset.  Granted, I don't eat it so it has to do it from the drug that makes it through the bloodstream to the stomach lining.


So I begin to wonder if I need to take less of this, even though I am taking a small dose.

As I approach the day when I will go to the Headache Institute, I am learning more and more about my intractable headache.

Believe me it is a pain!

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

It took the pain away!

I applied some Voltaren Gel this morning and it got me though most of the morning at work pain free (about 3 hours).

Pretty good for some gooey stuff.  

The normal application is two grams, and there is a flat plastic measuring tool that measures out two grams, and I know the amount of this stuff that I'm using doesn't come close to that.

I feel optimistic that I have something that will help.

Friday, April 6, 2012

Let's talk about progress.

We are into April and the middle of the month will mark the two year anniversary of my last R-CHOP infusion.  Sometime in the second half of April 2010 (or perhaps earlier) I became cancer clear.

Now that it's a couple of years and I haven't had a relapse, my odds of having one are lower than they were.

Well, I don't feel any different.  But it's a pleasant thought.

I'm over the cancer.  But I'm not over chemotherapy and I include my three months of Revlimid in that.  I don't know which was worse, but the R-CHOP was of longer duration.

I think the Revlimid did something to my neck muscles.

I'm not as terribly exhausted as I was when I was on either R-CHOP or Revlimid but I get tired a lot.   On Tuesday I visit the office and allow myself two hours, and it really tires me out.

I find a comfortable spot when I get home afterwards and take a nap. 

My neck still has problems that cause headaches, but I have learned new ways to ameliorate them.

I noticed that the area where the neck indents just below the skull on the right side hurt a little.

Actually kind of sore to the touch deep below the skin and I had the idea that I had inflamed muscle (if that's possible).   So I went looking for anti-inflammatory creams to apply and started using Aspercreme and then Penetrex with it to relax my neck.

It sort of works and just about the whole day the headaches are reduced to the point where they're not badly irritating.  I still feel something in my neck that doesn't feel right, both the quiet grinding and snapping sounds my neck makes when I move it certain ways, and the deeper muscles that still are stiff and waiting to tense up.

The surface twitches and twangs with bits of pain shooting up my neck are greatly reduced.

It has occurred to me that putting Aspercreme on my neck and having it absorbed through my skin is perhaps not something I should do for too long.

I've asked my doctor to prescribe a topical NSAID for me to use and he gave me a prescription for Voltaren Gel which has it's own problems, I'm sure.

There is no drug without unpopular side-effects.  I wonder how that drug will screw me up?

It's a highly prescribed drug, so they don't have it at the drug store.   Maybe I could get some from AMAZON?