[nancy524]

Radiation is Over

by nancy524 on Sat Mar 16, 2013 10:03 am

Since no one will answer back on the Back & Muscle Pain I have posted, I posted a new one to see if I can get any answers on this.
So finished my radiation on 3/11. By the 2nd day of radiation the pain in my mid back was 10x worse than it had ever been, didn't let up at all, didn't sleep but 1-2 hrs a night for crying and screaming so much from the pain. My radiation doctor put me on morphine for 10 days with the Vicodin to get through the treatments. He said he couldn't understand why I was having so much pain that most people feel relief by the 3rd treatment, he said I could be one of few who is not going to respond to the treatment, my pain just kept getting worse. It's still not all gone but letting up some. I can be farely good one day and full blown pain the next.
I seen my oncologist today 3/15, he has put me on Duragesic (Fentanyl Transdermal Patch) 25mcg, with the Vicodin for the next 15 days to see if that will help.
I am hoping this pain will finally let up because to go to this kind of pain when the pain was tolerable is horrible. I could not live like this from day to day for the rest of my life.
I also got a side effect in the esouphagus, where it is very painful to eat, when I swallow there is a terrible pain just above the breastbone, even drinking water can be painful.
Any suggestions as to why this happened with all this pain.
Thanks, Nancy

[Mary Degenkolb]

Re: Radiation is Over

by Mary Degenkolb on Sat Mar 16, 2013 5:47 pm

It could be the way they have you on the table during the treatments. You may need them to make some padded braces for you while you are undergoing the radiation. The Dr. Told me that where they had to "shoot" the X-ray, I would have some slight burning of the esophagus and he gave me a mouthwash that had some numbing agent in it. It helped my mouth from the Revlimid and it helped with the throat, as I swallowed some, by mistake. They call it "Magic Mouthwash.

I had relief from pain with radiation, but some do not. I'm sorry you are having such a bad result. But I also took "ALEEVE" for pain as well as methadone. It helped so much,and I compression fractured 3vertrbrae in my back. Sometimes pain medication does not always help and an anti inflammatory will do the best.

I hope this will help. I kind of fell out of place since I am in remission now for almost 2 years in September. I had an STC and arm now on maintaince with Revlimid.

[lstroupe]

Re: Radiation is Over

by lstroupe on Sat Mar 16, 2013 8:08 pm

Is it possible you have a fracture in one of your vertebrates?

[nancy524]

Re: Radiation is Over

by nancy524 on Sun Mar 17, 2013 1:44 am

Thanks guys. I do have fractures, I'm not sure if they are in the vertebrate, doctors discussed that, thats why they wanted to try the radiation.
As far as the burning in the esouphagus the radiation doctor knows nothing about that, as at the time I didn't realize it was coming from the radiation, when I seen my onc on Friday I asked him about it and he said it came from the radiaiton, I have acid reflux pretty bad and thought it was that at first, until it was obvious this wasn't the same pain.
They said there would be no more radiation since there was so much pain with it.
Thanks, Nancy

[Dr. Peter Voorhees]

Re: Radiation is Over

by Dr. Peter Voorhees on Mon Mar 18, 2013 12:04 am

I strongly suspect you are having pain from vertebral body compression fractures. I would suggest an MRI, although I suspect you will need a lot of medication prior to the procedure to tolerate it. This can give us a better sense of the extent of damage and whether or not there is any spine instability. In some instances, kyphoplasty can help with pain related to compression fractures. In more severe cases of spine instability or spinal cord compression, surgical intervention is required.

I hope you feel better soon. Take care!

Pete V.