It's all happening!

So much seems to have happened since the last post.

Last Tuesday I had a visit from a MacMillan nurse which was very useful. She had some practical advice about my pain management - take the paracetamol and ibuprofen regularly whether I seem to need it or not. She also wrote to my GP suggesting that they prescribe Oxynorm as a breakthrough pain killer for when the other pain killers are not working and another medicine (can't remember its name) to protect my stomach from the effects of daily doses of aspirin and ibuprofen. She also told me that I should be eligible for attendance allowance (incorrect) and a blue (disabled) badge for use in the car. I told her that the urologist was going to refer me to the palliative car consultant and she said she would expedite that as the consultant and the MacMillan nurses work closely together (a later 'phone call confirmed a meeting with the palliative care consultant a couple of days later). She will 'phone me after the bank holiday weekend to see how things were going.

On Thursday morning I had a call from the village pharmacy (which is authorised to collect and deliver my prescriptions) to say that they'd collected a prescription from the health centre but two items had been turned down (by a GP at the health centre) because they were "not on the computer" for me. These items were the Oxynorm and the stomach medicine! Wonderful! At first I was not too worried because my pain was more or less under control, but see below.

The meeting with the palliative care consultant was was also useful. He had to hand both my hospital notes (quite a thick wad now) and the notes made by the MacMillan nurse. Whilst in his consulting room I began to feel sick and was able to ask for a bowl before puking up some of my lunch. He took the opportunity, whilst I was otherwise engaged, to read through my answers to a questionnaire left for me to fill in by the MacMillan nurse. He said he would write (and fax) a letter to my GP at the health centre emphasising that I should have the medicines so far denied me. He will also appraise the urologist and oncologist of the outcome of our meeting. We will have a follow-up meeting mid June.

On the Friday I had a call from the welfare rights team based at the same cancer day centre (the Beechwood Centre) as the Macmillan nurses. I was told that I may be eligible to disabled living allowance (not attendance allowance which is only available to people in receipt of state pension) and, if so, my wife will probably be entitled to carers allowance. I was told to hold onto the blue badge application for now because, if I get the allowance, the blue badge application will be dealt with a lot quicker.

I had a bad time Friday night and Saturday morning with persistent pain (my guess is that the morphine patch only lasted 6.5 days rather than the full 7). So I 'phoned the pharmacy to check whether there had been any more prescriptions for me and was told there had not. So I called the out of hours doctor service to see what could be done. Having taken some details the call answerer told me that a doctor would call me back in about 20 minutes. Whilst I was waiting for that call, the pharmacy rang to say that there was a prescription after all and they could dispense it. So I called the out of hours service again to say that I would not need the doctor after all. My neighbour Frank took me down to the pharmacy. I'm not clear whether there was actually a new prescription or whether the pharmacist dispensed the Oxycorm based on the "refused" script. Anyway I had the medicine.

During Saturday I took three doses of the Oxynorm and had a good night's sleep. Today, Sunday, I have been pretty much pain free but tired. Perhaps the doses of Oxycorm in some way boosted the effects of the morphine patch or just has a longer effective period with multiple doses. Whatever, a good day pain wise and hopefully a good night to follow.