This is an unauthorized blog post, but an overdue one nevertheless. It's been a painful couple of weeks for Becca. She started taking the Votrient pills (mentioned in her last post) this week, but it will be a good six to eight weeks to see whether they are doing the trick. Meanwhile the meter is running as the #$%&!@% insurance company denled coverage. We're appealing. Another painful process.
The physical pain is sciatica, an intense deferred pain centered in her right upper thigh area, not near the abdominal tumors. Two theories are a blood clot or bone metasasis. Tomorrow Becca gets an X-ray and a sonogram to see if anything shows up. Then there's the pain medication, which has been ramped up from Vicodin to Dialudid to, as of today, Dialudid and Methadone. Serious stuff, and she is not even trying to kick heroin. That's on top of the Adavan for anxiety, nausea and muscles, and God knows what else.
My mom used to take Adavan during her sunset daze. She also described painful people as "pills" during her glory days. I used to think that was a funny, jaded expression. Now I'm not so sure.
Steve
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Becca, we're thinking of you all the time.
ReplyDeleteFWIW, the government grants patent monopolies to drug companies that allow them to charge retail prices for prescription medication up to 100,000 percent over the marginal cost of production. In this case, that is the price to produce one more unit of a pharmaceutical drug.
Oh no, Becca, I'm so sorry you are still in pain. How awful. I hope the pain meds are working and you are able to sleep. Pain - God, it's what we all fear, isn't it? Then the fear of pain adds to the pain, becoming a pain in itself. I'll call and see about a visit in the next few days. There's another meditation approach that might help - Tonglen. Let's talk soon.
ReplyDeletelove,
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