A Painful Weekend

2nd June - I have had the most awful stomach pains overnight. Horrendous severe cramping that causes me to writhe in pain. Every time I cramp at my stomach area it radiates around my back. My back is super sore, especially around the drain 2 area so the combination of both pain sites together is agony. A nurse gives me a strong painkiller at some point and the pain subsides a little. 

I have now had diahorrea 11 times, surely this is not a side effect of new AI I took last night. Diarrhoea is listed as one but surely not this much this fast?!

Mum and Col visit later that day, despite my sore stomach I need to eat. Mum helps feed me a soft jacket potato, I am totally incapable of doing it myself.

Later Rob and his Dad visit, just for a little while. I am aware people want to see me without overwhelming me, it’s a good idea, at the moment the smallest levels of activity exhaust me.

Caroline visits that evening, she brings me a few goodies and she also has super exciting news to share with me....

💕 Modo, Caroline - Huge congratulations 💕

3rd June - Another night full of spasms, writhing and pain 😔 Rob visits early and speaks to the nurses and doctors to see what we expect next plans to be and just why I am in so much pain. It turns out that my blood markers (taken from my new in place PICC) are showing severe infection still. There is some mention of a normal infection marker being around 30, mine is currently sitting at over 2,000. That’d be why then. The plan is to put me on a 10 day course of antibiotics with a drug called Meropenem and because of a potential thrush infection in my chest I am also started on a course of antifungal drugs. These will all be via IV through the PICC line. Although I have the raised infection markers, my kidney markers are actually showing improvement so that’s one small win.

Michelle and Lou visit about 11am. Today is Michelle’s Baby Shower that I had organised with one of her sisters Lisa. I’m really sad to miss it 😔 There is a scrummy Afternoon Tea planned at Joanna’s Boutique Tea Room with games, balloons and decorations.

Joanna's Boutique Tea Room

Lisa, who is an amazing cake make and has her own cake making business called CaketoGo has made little cupcake favours for everyone too. She has saved one for me!

One of Lisa's Cupcakes

I had weirdly been obsessing about my chipped toe nail polish, it was becoming a massive issue in my still very befuddled brain. Luckily Mum realised and when they visited tonight she brought in nail polish remover and removed the offending polish for me, I was so pleased. Sounds so odd writing that! #MumToTheRescue.

I am in dreadful pain down my leg, my knee is excruciating. Tonight Mum and Col tag teamed, Col massaged my leg whilst Mum spooned dinner into my mouth. The pain makes doing pretty much anything pretty much impossible, including eating. I'm actually really struggling with eating anything at all at the moment but I know I have to. I just don't fancy anything at all.

Tietze Syndrome

Cancer is the gift that keeps on giving. I'm currently really suffering from something called Tietze Syndrome. As I said in January I was shitting myself as I had swelling in my chest but the docs said it was nothing to worry about and diagnosed me with costochondritis. Well since this appointment, it's become more and more painful, at one point at work I sneezed and it hurt so much that I cried out in pain. It's been a struggle to get myself dressed, to drive, to just walk around as normal, it's really painful :( Because my costochondritis is accompanied by swelling, I actually have Tietze Syndrome.

I ended up going back to the doctor who has prescribed me a two week course of naproxen which is supposed to reduce pain and swelling, let's hope it helps!

Wikipedia says:
The main presentation of the syndrome is significant, acute pain in the chest, along with tenderness and some swelling of the cartilages affected, which is commonly palpable on examination. Perceived pain is often exacerbated with respiration, although many times it can be extremely painful, to the point of being debilitating.

Illustration By Henry Vandyke Carter - Henry Gray (1918) Anatomy of the Human Body

The reason I started this post with "cancer is the gift that keeps on giving" is because I have found out:

Patients who have had radiation therapy to the chest/breast will often experience this syndrome which can occur shortly after therapy or years later

Thanks universe, I must have been a right shit in a past life....