Pain Management - It's all in the Footwork

Right now Scott (you remember him from the penny incident I wrote about yesterday) and I are on our way home from the beach. He's driving and I'm working on my laptop. I thought I'd mention that Scott was driving just in case anyone thinks I'm actually trying to multitask driving and typing.

Leaving the beach is a little painful. I'm going to miss waking up to the sound of the waves, being able to walk on the beach anytime I want to and basically being able to do nothing. The pain is bittersweet because I'm glad I came and I'm also glad to be going home. I can manage this pain - it's not too difficult. I just remind myself that I have had a great vacation and then get on with it. Managing the pain the occurs due to cancer treatment is trickier.

My cancer treatment began with a radical hysterectomy on April 7, 2009. I didn't have much time to prepare for the surgery. I was diagnosed on a Friday and was in the operating room the following Tuesday. Prior to the surgery, I was terrified of prescription pain medicine. I didn't take it...ever...for any reason. I didn't take it after the extraction of wisdom teeth, broken bones or for any other reason. After my surgery I woke up to find myself with a morphine dispenser hooked up to my IV. YIKES!!

I realized that the morphine wouldn't leave the dispenser unless I pressed a button, so I didn't press the button. Scott was appalled by my refusal to press the morphine button and took it upon himself to press it for me every ten minutes. I remember voicing my displeasure...he didn't listen...the next couple of days are a haze in my memory.

This initial experience in pain management involved Scott's footwork - literally. He walked from his bed in my hospital room, around my bed to the button and pushed. He did this day and night without fail every ten minutes. That's dedication. I found out later that I was supposed to have the pain medicine so that my body would have a chance to start healing. It would have been helpful for me to know that ahead of time.

After surgery, I followed the pain medicine instructions to the letter. I wanted my body to be able to heal. I was going to give it the best chance possible; besides, it really hurt! My sister, Rocky, arrived to help me after surgery. My daughter, Jess was there much of the time as well. They and my husband did the footwork for this phase of the treatment. They kept track of my meds, gave me what I needed when I needed it, and basically let rest.

In May, chemo started. This added a whole new dimension to pain management. I received an immune booster shot after each two-day treatment. This shot caused joint and muscle pain like I've never felt before. Wow - that was hard. I did the first two shots without any assistance from pain medicine. During the third two-day chemo treatment, Scott told me to ask my nurse about pain medicine. She was ready with a prescription. I was ready to use it!

As far as the surgery was concerned, I felt great. I had no more pain in my abdomen. I thought I weathered that pretty well. Then a new chemo side effect reared it's ugly head. The area around my incision became swollen and painful. I experienced quite a bit of pain in my abdomen. What the heck was this?? I called my nurse and she explained that after enough chemo was introduced into my body, the drugs started attacking the areas that were healing from the hysterectomy. She told me that as long as the incision did not turn red and I wasn't running a fever, I shouldn't worry about it. Great. More pain medicine.

I did a little footwork and decided to have a little footwork done. I'm talking about reflexology. I thought that this form of pain management might be beneficial. I was sick of medicine and wanted to manage the pain without the use of pain meds; at least as much as possible.

I sent an email to Debbie, a massage therapist friend of mine. I knew she practiced reflexology - she had worked on my feet years ago. I made an appointment with her at Knead for Wholeness, her place of business in Smyrna (http://www.kneadforwholeness.net/).

The thought behind reflexology is that there are "reflex" areas on our feet that affect areas and organs in our body. I just know that after Debbie worked on my feet, the pain I experienced diminished significantly. Of course, the pain doesn't stay gone forever. It does come back after a time. I feel that, if I were able to have Debbie do reflexology on my feet daily, the pain would take much longer to return.

I found a pair of reflexology socks and gave Scott some footwork to do. Reflexology socks have the reflex areas printed on the bottom of each sock. I put them on and he can massage the appropriate spots on my feet to assist in pain management. This is nice - but I recommend using a licensed reflexologist like my friend Debbie.

To sum it up, you just have to do the footwork when trying to manage the pain involved in cancer treatments.

1. Take your meds as prescribed.

2. Ask for assistance when the pain is too much. Don't try to tough it out - this method puts unnecessary stress on the body.

3. Contact a licensed massage therapist for therapeutic massages and reflexology treatments. Even if I didn't have any pain, I would still consider these a treat!

Pain doesn't have to be so much of a pain if you do the footwork.