And...I started the 24 hour/day chemo.
Things changed, however, during the fourth and final cycle of chemotherapy...the right combination of circumstances pulled together.... First, my mom was in town...and she knew better than to listen to what my dad had said (she's been on the receiving end of his hateful remarks for a lot longer than I have). Second, while I was at the doctor's office for a shot, the nurse saw me react when one of the painful spasms hit. I can't remember what she said regarding the pain, but my mom made a comment to the effect that nobody seemed to be listening to me about it, but rather, seemed only to be listening to the lies. Before the nurse said anything, the look in her eyes told me she was about to fix that (and then she said as much out loud). She immediately left the room, with a look of determination that made me glad I wasn't going to be on the receiving end of what she was about to say. The next thing I knew, one of my oncologists was telling me to go straight to the ER if the pain got too bad. That night, it did...and my mom drove me to the ER (there's no way I could have driven at the time).
At The ER (and beyond)....
When I got to the ER, the pain had calmed down a bit, but apparently only I saw that change. The doctor, even then, described my pain as "severe". They put me on and IV of Demerol (sp?) immediately, and I passed out (I was already very tired—only the pain had been keeping me awake). When my oncologist arrived later that night (or was it the next morning?), he told me he was changing me over to straight morphine for the pain, due to Demerol's risks, which included the possibility of seizures. I was shocked at the idea of being put on straight morphine, after having heard about how highly addictive it is, but the doctors and nurses managed the dosage very carefully to keep the pain down during the following week without getting me addicted.
Now, here's the real shocker...something that gives a very clear description (much better than I could put into words) of the pain I was in that whole time before (particularly the first three cycles, when I had to deal with it unaided).... One of the nurses, who saw the pain I was in, told me that it was on the same level as, and possibly even worse than, the pain experienced by a woman in labor. Imagine that pain, and having to endure it for a week straight. That's what I went through...thanks to lies told to the doctors over a year ago causing a breakdown in communications.
Lesson learned: Never accept that pain like that is just "expected" and that you have to put up with it...if you're not already well-prepared for the pain (adequate pain meds on-hand), it isn't expected...and either way, you don't have to "just accept" pain like that. The ER is there for a reason, and pain on that level is a more-than-justifiable trip to the ER.
So with that, there should only be one more entry left regarding the last batch of chemo, and that's the results, which we won't know until I'm scheduled for a CT scan, and I don't know when that will be at this point. What I DO know is that my tumor markers are all back down to normal (they were after the third of the four chemo cycles), and that's a very good sign. Hopefully, this will be the end of any new cancer growth for a long time...that will leave me clear to recover from the last few months of chemotherapy....
Basically, all of the scans came up clean. The cancer is in remission. Now, that doesn't mean it can't still come back, but it is a VERY good sign! Even more, going by the timing of previous returns of the cancer, by this point, had the trend continued, I would be heading back for more chemo (and given the headaches I've been having—all starting from the brain surgery incision sites—and the painful swallowing—probably allergy-related, but...anyways, we were kind of dreading the results...I certainly was!)...but instead, the cycle appears to have been either broken, or, at the very least, smacked really hard. In two months, I go back to the doctor's office to get my port flushed. Two months after that, I go back to see the doctor. It'll probably be another two months before I get any additional tests done.