Time seems to pass rather slowly nowadays. Annoying.

(Matthew's the funny one, I'm the brooding one. He'll get up in a few hours and cheer you up)

Slowly. Yes you could say so.

Ask them to let you have the good stuff. Durogesic patches would be a good start. Also, make sure that your doctor has prescribed something for breakthrough pain. Doing so is best practise when it comes to pain management, but not all doctors do it without being asked.

http://www.medsafe.govt.nz/Profs/Datasheet/d/durogesictts.htm

Staying well hydrated can't hurt, either.

http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/health/HealthRepublish_1556666.htm

Staying well hydrated can't hurt, either.

http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/health/HealthRepublish_1556666.htm

"(Matthew's the funny one, I'm the brooding one. He'll get up in a few hours and cheer you up)"

Bah. Humbug.

Maybe a drug that can put you in a coma for 6 months would be the best development.

Hang-in, it's only pain. Besides I thought of a far worse scenario: *I* could have it.

Solipsistically,
mh

According to medical lore, the closest we of the weaker sex can come to the pain of childbirth is passing a kidney stone. The salient point is that it's limited to a few hours or at most a day or two. Pain from a bone lesion goes on day after day, and saps the will to fight.

On the positive side, if the pain is from dead or dying cancer cells, the first round will be the worst or only bout of bone pain.

The basic science is that the nervous system has mechanisms to down-regulate the pain pathways. There are natural substances with specific receptors that alleviate pain, especially the subjective sense of malaise. Opiates resemble the natural pain-killers and fake out the receptors. Anecdotal evidence is that bone pain doesn't respond so well, perhaps because of fewer receptors in the circuits. So there's a rationale for trying other types of drugs like hash. Another possibility is aspirin and other NSAID drugs (check with doc about aspirin because of effect on blood clotting), tranqs like Valium, antidepressants, alcohol. You may find that a few pain-free hours at the expense of grogginess will keep up your spirits enough to let you deal with it.

Were I slightly more criminally, rather than just culinarily inclined, I'd send some interesting brownies. Well, the thought was there, anyway.

Out of curiosity, what are your thoughts these days on legalizing medicinal marijuana, and have they changed with recent experience? (Not for yourself, necessarily, just the idea overall.)

Just following up on what Roger said. There are a lot of pain relief combinations available and it's difficult to predict what will work best for a given individual (NSAIDS can produce similar side effects to aspirin in some individuals, BTW). It's your pain management specialist's job to find the combination which works best for you.

I'm assuming that there's a specific reason why you've been prescribed Endocet rather than an alternative narcotic, but that reason may simply be caution on your prescriber's part. While acetaminophen increases the effects of oxycodone, it comes with its own set of problems and isn't always the best alternative to a different narcotic.

Harrass the crap out of your prescriber until they find the combination of drugs which gives you effective pain relief without you having to double up on doses or take the next dose earlier (over time, doing either with compounds containing acetaminophen can cause significant toxicity problems). More of what's already ineffective usually doesn't work.

Managing breakthrough pain isn't important just for keeping you comfortable. One reason why continuous pain relief is preferred practise over as required pain relief is because the research shows that it takes higher doses of analgesics to control established pain than to prevent it from happening.

As Roger suggested, alcohol increases the effects (good and bad) of many analgesics. It does increase the toxicity of acetaminophen, so if you're going to use alcohol to boost the effectiveness of the Endocet it's wise to let your prescriber know (they may opt to prescribe oxycodone without the acetaminophen).

I've yet to read any research indicating that THC interacts in a negative way with conventional narcotic analgesics. For some people, it reduces the nausea associated with chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and high doses of narcotics, better than Stemetil and Maxolon, and also stimulates appetite. For others, it has no impact on their overall feeling of well-being or it makes them feel worse.

The bottom line is that you have a right for your pain to be controlled far better than it is currently, and if you're looking at several more months of this then it's time to start kicking some heads and demanding that the issue be addressed now. While no-one can guarantee you "pain-free", three days of grinding bone pain is totally unacceptable - and it should be just as unacceptable to your doctor as it is to you.

More than just bigger/stronger/scarier drugs, the pain issue will probably be handled by figuring out the direct cause (aside from the obvious one, which is being treated already) and treating that as well as managing symptoms. If the bone pain has a paraneoplastic/hormonal cause, could be treatable with the proper "anti" hormone and/or steroids.

Reading over the comments, it seems you have a rather sophisticated peanut gallery here, L. Should be proud.

Not that I have any clue about how all these things interact, but one typical minus of steroids which may be a plus in your case: they have a side effect of stimulating appetite/weight gain.

Hmmmm, now that I think about it, steroids also have a known side effect of aggressive behavior - don't know if that's a consideration for you.

"Anabolic" steroids = male sex hormones cause increase in aggressive behavior. "Adrenocorticosteroids" = cortisol, prednisone cause increase appetite, and in high doses euphoria and even manic type behavior. Corticosteroids decrease inflammation (they're the S in NSAID = nonsteroid anti-inflammatory drug), but preferentially immune system inflammation. Chemo tends to depress immune system, so not a good idea in high doses. Low dose prednisone might be OK.

Hmmmm, now that I think about it, steroids also have a known side effect of aggressive behavior - don't know if that's a consideration for you.

All sorts of different steroids are used in cancer treatment. While anabolic steroids can promote aggression in large doses, they're generally prescribed to combat side effects of cancer treatments and cancer itself rather than as a primary treatment. Other steroids might be prescribed to reduce inflammation (especially corticosteroids).

And for certain kinds of cancer which are hormonally based (prostate and breast cancer especially), hormone treatment is used to offset the hormones produced by the tumours or on which the tumours feed.

Steroids ain't just steroids, and while they're pretty potent compounds, they fall into several different classes some of which will be your friends in this fight and some of which will not.

You're probably on some kind of corticosteroid already - that's standard with any kind of lung problem. When you've finished your treatment, your doctors may put you on an anabolic steroid to bulk you up. If your primary malignancy is hormone based or hormone exacerbated, you may already be taking steroids to combat those hormone surges. But while you're having treatment which compromises your immune system, they'll try to keep the steroid doses to a bare minimum - steroids have their own nasty impact on your immune system.

Well, am basing steroid info on my own experience with corticosteroids (though not for cancer, and probably in wildly different dosage and only for a few days). Because of short duration, no side effects, but close relatives who have taken larger doses for longer periods have reported side effects. (Luckily just severe munchies, not aggressiveness.)

And yeah, even my 5-day dosage pack came with all sorts of warnings about potential immune effects, even for up to a year afterward. Nasty stuff.

Because of short duration, no side effects, but close relatives who have taken larger doses for longer periods have reported side effects.

I've noticed mood swings in people whose short-term courses of prednisone (which would normally be around 30mg - 60mg per day for 3 to 5 days) have been rapidly followed by further short courses.

The doses used for long-term treatment are usually substantially lower, although you'll still often see people develop the classic steroid "moon-face" if they're on continuous corticosteroid treatment (even if it's just an inhaler for preventing asthma).

There's definitely a trade-off involved in using corticosteroids during cancer treatment - only Coll and his doctor are in a position to determine whether that trade-off's worthwhile (I still think a well-timed tantrum demanding better pain control is in order).