Superstitious

A few days after I returned home from my April 7 surgery, I was the recipient of a huge bad luck omen.  I was standing in my master bathroom and the 8' x 4' mirror on the wall above the sinks fell.  Yep - just like that - it fell.  There was no earthquake, I didn't throw anything at it and there was no warning.  It just fell right off the wall and shattered.

It occurred to me that a mirror breaking involved something like seven years bad luck.  I considered the size of the mirror compared to an average mirror and thought that I might possibly to have garnered 168 years bad luck.  At my age, I didn't think that I had to be concerned about 110 of those years. But, given scientific advances and such, I could conceivably live for the remaining 58 bad luck years.

I looked around at the mess.  Glass shards were everywhere.  I watched as my black cat, Loki, walked into the room.  I scooped him up so he wouldn't get glass in his feet. I realized that I was holding a BLACK CAT in my arms...my black cat.  I calculated quickly.  Loki came to me when he was only four weeks old and he was nearly nine years old now.  I've been living with bad luck for almost nine years!  No wonder I had a broken mirror the size of a wall.

I mean, wasn't I pushing the envelope living with a black cat?  Now the mirror. What next? I thought about the foot I broke a few years ago.  Then I remembered the broken elbow. Did this have anything to do with my recklessness concerning my black cat?  It struck me - I was now dealing with cancer! Was Loki involved in this? If a black cat could cause broken bones and cancer, what would the mirror do???  I knew it.  I was going to die. Did I mention that having  radical hysterectomy can affect rational thought? 

While the guys cleaned up all the glass in the bathroom, I sat in the living room feeling worse and worse as the minutes went by. Was it the cat or the mirror?  Did it really matter which one it was?

I told my sister that I was in a lot of pain.  That I hadn't felt this bad earlier that day and I was sure something was dreadfully wrong with me (other than cancer and the surgery).  She asked me what time I had gotten up and dressed that morning.  I told her that I was dressed by 8:00 AM.  It was now 5:00 PM - so what?  Where was she going with this? She shook her head and said "What made you think that wearing four inch heels just a few days after major surgery was a good idea?"

I was dumbfounded! What was she talking about? What did my shoes have to do with anything? I explained that I was probably dying from black cat and broken mirror syndrome. She didn't believe me.  She had this idea that the high heels were putting undo strain on my back and on the incision I had in my abdomen.  I explained that my pants where too long so I had to wear four inch heels. She said I was stupid.  She made me take off my shoes.  I wasn't happy about that - I loved those shoes.

Shockingly, the pain started easing up. I tried to pretend that I still felt really bad.  It didn't work.  I've never been able to lie.  Okay, so the shoes caused the pain.  The mirror and my cat were innocent. Nothing else happened that day.  Sure, I've had to go through chemo and experience things that I really would have liked to skip.  But I know that mirrors break, cats are black and those two things mean nothing, but I should never wear four inch heels right after major surgery.

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.