CANCER AND PAIN

nubis

Hello old friends and new friends. Long time of being out of the site. But I'm back.
My husband 32 years old is facing small cell lung cancer. He is in his second quimo TOPOTECAN 5 days in a row, every 3 weeks. This week is his sixth cycle of TOPOTECAN and I'm worried because he is having that chest pain that he had before when he was diagnosed.

It means the quimo is not working?. After this cycle, he will have a CTScan. Last CTScan showed the cancer was under control (some parts decreased and some stay). I just don't like to see my husband in pain. He is taking more pain medicine. Any recommendations for pain??

His pain is on the chest and abdomen (because he has a lymph node in the stomach).

Thank you for any comments.

soccerfreaks

Pain relief
As you point out indirectly, pain does serve one good purpose: it is our body's way of telling us that something is wrong! Otherwise, I am firmly believer in the idea that though we may have to suffer because of cancer, we should NOT have to be in constant pain.

If your husband is taking his current medications for pain AS PRESCRIBED rather than when he feels a need (as some of us do) then I would advise a visit to the doctor, to let him/her know of this ongoing and unacceptable problem.

I am not an expert on pain management, although I have taken my share of the various kinds over the last few years. The strongest I have taken at home is fentanyl, a morphine patch. I do not know, of course (I am not a doctor), whether your husband's situation warrants it.

But his doctor will!

Good luck to him, and best withes to both of you.

Take care,

Joe

nubis

soccerfreaks said:

Pain relief
As you point out indirectly, pain does serve one good purpose: it is our body's way of telling us that something is wrong! Otherwise, I am firmly believer in the idea that though we may have to suffer because of cancer, we should NOT have to be in constant pain.

If your husband is taking his current medications for pain AS PRESCRIBED rather than when he feels a need (as some of us do) then I would advise a visit to the doctor, to let him/her know of this ongoing and unacceptable problem.

I am not an expert on pain management, although I have taken my share of the various kinds over the last few years. The strongest I have taken at home is fentanyl, a morphine patch. I do not know, of course (I am not a doctor), whether your husband's situation warrants it.

But his doctor will!

Good luck to him, and best withes to both of you.

Take care,

Joe

He is using Fentanyl
Dear Joe:
Today we went to his quimo and we asked the doctor about this pain. At this point she only prescribed him to use one more fentanyl patch. Then after the scan she will let us know what to do. 3 months ago we ran to the hospital because the pain was from the scale of 1 to 10, was at 10 so we went to the hospital and he was there 3 days. Doctor did a lot of test and they did not find something NEW!!!!. So the reason they gave us was that there is a lymp node in his stomach that increased a little bit and maybe is pressing some nerves and this is very painful.

The problem is my husband is resistant to pain medication. So he uses a high dose. Rigth now he is taking 80mg twice a day oxicotin, 20mg oxycodone every 4 hrs, and 2 patch of Fentanyl. With the new prescription he will be on 3 patch of fentanyl. And when he cannot sleep he takes from 8 to 16mg of DULOID as needed when pain is at the top.

I'm scared just 6 months ago he was not taking all this medication.


Thank you for your advice.

Unknown

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