Roller Coaster of Blah

This weekend was full of blah as my bowel discomfort continued. I spent the better part of the day in bed on Saturday and about half the day Sunday. The pain level was about normal both days, though it got a little worse sunday evening. Mostly I just had this feeling in my gut that I can only describe as rotten. I wasn't nauseas and didn't have to spend that much time in the bathroom, just had this rotten feeling all weekend. Along with that came a disinterest in eating so I largely made it through the weekend on granola bars, saltines and Ensure. It's possible that I had some form of food poisoning or maybe something is going around as my oldest had a mild fever and tummy ache on Friday, but I didn't have any of the normal symptoms of either. My wife pointed out that all of the pain medication I'm on could be masking symptoms that I would have otherwise had. Anything is possible, it's just one more thing that I have no explanation for.

Still felt it a little today, but it was much better. I at least felt like eating today, though some of my normal pains were a little above average and persistent throughout the day. I told the radiation nurse about my weekend and they said that it was too soon for the radiation to be responsible, especially given that I didn't have any nausea. He told me to keep an eye on things and let them know if anything changes. I called my oncologist's nurse to get a refill on my Vicodin. When she called back I told her about the gut issues, but she had no suggestions either.

She did ask how my pain has been and I told her that it has largely been the same. I take 5 or 6 Vicodin per day on top of the Fentanyl patch. She called me back later after speaking to the Oncologist and referred me to a pain management specialist. The goal has been for the patch to take care of all of the pain without needing to take the pills with any regularity. My pain level has seemingly remained the same as the medication has gone up. It's always just beyond where it should be. The patch plus the pills have kept it tolerable, but haven't really done away with it. I called the pain management doctor to schedule an appointment. The person that I spoke to said that they would review my information and call me back tomorrow to setup an appointment. Apparently this doctor only sees outpatients on Monday and Thursday, so hopefully I can get in to see him on Thursday and hopefully he'll have some idea on how to deal with this and hopefully this rotgut will go away by morning. That has kept me down more than the pain. I'm glad today was a company holiday, we'll see what tomorrow brings.