PAIN is just weakness leaving the body!

**Cross Posted at http://channelingfrustrations.blogspot.com**


Got my results of my PET/CT scan. I am still cancer free.
Making me at least a 2 year survivor. My Remission anniversary just passed.

Check up went well. Very quick visit with my Oncologist. Told me I am healthy and that my next scan would be near the end of the year.

But as I wrote in my last post, I have been having various amounts of bone pain with differing degrees of severity. My joints are making noise again and popping or snapping at unexpected times. And at times, very loudly.

Dr L. didnt equate these with any side effect from Chemo just perhaps old age.

So we reviewed my situation, my blood work came back good, he went looking for any signs of swelling of lymph nodes, checked my legs (ankles and calves) for edema. Finding none told me all was well. we shook hands and I was back outside in a heartbeat.

I also have lost about 10 lbs since my last visit with him. Which is a good thing since my weight has been a concern since my treatments stopped.

All I have been doing is eating when I'm honestly hungry and eating enough to curb the craving. No more, no less. I have added an energy bar to substitute for meals like Breakfast when eating on the go. I especially like CLIF Bar.

I don't know if I'm on to something here but to drop about 10 pounds in what has really been about 10 days means at this pace clothes are going to start to fit very differently in the next week or so.

I feel better for the most part...except for my bones. I have considered this to be arthritis but much to the chagrin of my wife I usually do not take any pain killers. Tylenol is all I should be taking since Advil and such are off limits because I only have the one Kidney.

But I shrugged off pain killers when I was on chemo too. I didn't want to become dependent on them if pain was going to be a long term side effect. I didn't want to always respond to pain with a pill.

Besides, they can't be good for you over the long haul. We have all heard stories about Tylenol affecting your liver the anti-inflammatory drugs like Advil and Motrin are no better. They go after the kidneys (or so I heard) and I only have the one.

So I try to deal with the pain as I can. I try and not make my wife too aware of what hurts because she will always recommend Tylenol because "why should you suffer for no reason?"I read once on an old US ARMY website that "PAIN IS JUST WEAKNESS LEAVING THE BODY"...I liked that statement but don't want to be a hard ass either. But when a shoulder cracks like thunder or my wrists snap like dry twigs in the Forest I know something is just off in my body because the pains come and go. I have good days and I have bad days.

I have read a good amount about long term damage from Chemo. I was told by some of the oncology nurses that one or more of the drugs I received in my cocktail can and do accelerate osteoporosis, which means arthritis is waiting for me just around the corner.

But as Dr L remarked about the scars I have from surgery as I took my shirt off for my check up, "if slicing and dicing you up means the cancer stays away for ever then it's worth it right?"I guess so.

If bone pain and maybe some form of arthritis is the fall out I get from the chemo but cancer stays away...I guess it was all worth it.

If I have to choose to live something I'll choose the random body pain.I just hope it doesn't get in the way too much. Only time will tell.


Be well.