As the whole weak-and-pathetic-left-hand thing had been getting to me, I decided this week, to attempt to improve the situation. My newest novelty purchase is a "Gripmaster", for the unitiated, this is a nifty little exerciser for your hand, which aims to strengthen your grip. Unlike other hand exercisers, this one works each finger individually, which makes it great for people like me that want to get some use back in their fingertips. Using a colour coded system, there are four different gripmasters; each with a differing level of tension. I went for the yellow "extra light" model which provides 3lbs of tension per finger. To give some example of how poor my left hand is- I can squeeze it together easily with my right hand, but it takes a concentrated effort to do the same with my left, I am using it along with my old stress ball, just as a way of (hopefully) preventing my hand from becoming completely inactive. I am also looking forward to my physiotherapy session next week, where hopefully they'll be able to suggest a few other activities to help my arm, hand and walking...
After a weekend of symptoms rapidly returning, I had been feeling a bit glum and helpless. Although frustrating, my symptoms were familiar to me, however the final straw was yesterday having the return of headaches and a slight nausious feeling... having no desire to go completely backward to starting the day with a headache and vomiting (touch wood- no vomit yet!), I thought it was about time I phoned my key worker, Sarah at the hospital. When you are diagnosed with cancer, you are usually assigned an oncology nurse specialist as a key worker. This is the person you call with any concerns or questions. I told Sarah about my returning symptoms, she asked a few questions such as "how quickly have they returned?" (difficult to answer when it's happening to you; I feel it's rapid...but maybe not etc..) Anyway she said she'd talk to Dr R, and got back to me this morning.
Dr R decided to prescribe a steroid, Dexamethasone, to help alliviate some of my symptoms. Steroid treatment is quite common for patients with brain tumours, so I thought I'd explain (as well as I can!) a little about why they are used:
Brain tumours take up a lot of space, something for which the skull is not well equiped- not the most stretchy or flexible part of the body! This causes a lot of pressure which can lead to headaches, fits, seizures etc as well as pressing on nerves and causing the mobility issues I have at the moment. The aim of the steroid is to reduce the swelling, and so (hopefully) reduce some of my symptoms, whilt also making me that little bit stronger when the time comes to restart another treatment program. So everyone's a winner right?....
....umm not exactly. Having a brother who was severely asthmatic in childhood, I have seen firsthand some of the side effects that can occur, and there are actually quite a few possibilities: 1) weight gain and water retention (delightful)
2) Increased appetite (probably explains the weight gain in some cases...)
3) drowsiness/unconciousness (scary)
4) Difficulty sleeping (horrible, but preferable to unconciousness!)
5) changes in mood- high spirits or in rare cases paranoia, depression and hallucinations ( am a bit of an emotional rollercoaster anyway at the moment!)
6) Increased Risk of infection`( body's already taken a hit thanks to chemo)
7)Stomach ulcers ( I will be taking a "stomach lining" drug along with the steroid to prevent this)
8) An acne type rash (my skin's not great to begin with!)
9) skin thinning / stretch marks ( let's add them to my existing scars...)
10) flushing and night sweats ( guess that explains the difficulty sleeping...)
11) muscle wasting ( have a lot already)
12) Bone thinning with long term use ( again, my bones are weak already)
So there you have it, not for the faint-hearted. Of course I may not get any of these symptoms, but suffice to say it's a pretty hard-core drug, I'm just hoping it works for me...
Tuesday, 12 June 2012
Getting a grip and stuff about steroids
As the whole weak-and-pathetic-left-hand thing had been getting to me, I decided this week, to attempt to improve the situation. My newest novelty purchase is a "Gripmaster", for the unitiated, this is a nifty little exerciser for your hand, which aims to strengthen your grip. Unlike other hand exercisers, this one works each finger individually, which makes it great for people like me that want to get some use back in their fingertips. Using a colour coded system, there are four different gripmasters; each with a differing level of tension. I went for the yellow "extra light" model which provides 3lbs of tension per finger. To give some example of how poor my left hand is- I can squeeze it together easily with my right hand, but it takes a concentrated effort to do the same with my left, I am using it along with my old stress ball, just as a way of (hopefully) preventing my hand from becoming completely inactive. I am also looking forward to my physiotherapy session next week, where hopefully they'll be able to suggest a few other activities to help my arm, hand and walking...
After a weekend of symptoms rapidly returning, I had been feeling a bit glum and helpless. Although frustrating, my symptoms were familiar to me, however the final straw was yesterday having the return of headaches and a slight nausious feeling... having no desire to go completely backward to starting the day with a headache and vomiting (touch wood- no vomit yet!), I thought it was about time I phoned my key worker, Sarah at the hospital. When you are diagnosed with cancer, you are usually assigned an oncology nurse specialist as a key worker. This is the person you call with any concerns or questions. I told Sarah about my returning symptoms, she asked a few questions such as "how quickly have they returned?" (difficult to answer when it's happening to you; I feel it's rapid...but maybe not etc..) Anyway she said she'd talk to Dr R, and got back to me this morning.
Dr R decided to prescribe a steroid, Dexamethasone, to help alliviate some of my symptoms. Steroid treatment is quite common for patients with brain tumours, so I thought I'd explain (as well as I can!) a little about why they are used:
Brain tumours take up a lot of space, something for which the skull is not well equiped- not the most stretchy or flexible part of the body! This causes a lot of pressure which can lead to headaches, fits, seizures etc as well as pressing on nerves and causing the mobility issues I have at the moment. The aim of the steroid is to reduce the swelling, and so (hopefully) reduce some of my symptoms, whilt also making me that little bit stronger when the time comes to restart another treatment program. So everyone's a winner right?....
....umm not exactly. Having a brother who was severely asthmatic in childhood, I have seen firsthand some of the side effects that can occur, and there are actually quite a few possibilities: 1) weight gain and water retention (delightful)
2) Increased appetite (probably explains the weight gain in some cases...)
3) drowsiness/unconciousness (scary)
4) Difficulty sleeping (horrible, but preferable to unconciousness!)
5) changes in mood- high spirits or in rare cases paranoia, depression and hallucinations ( am a bit of an emotional rollercoaster anyway at the moment!)
6) Increased Risk of infection`( body's already taken a hit thanks to chemo)
7)Stomach ulcers ( I will be taking a "stomach lining" drug along with the steroid to prevent this)
8) An acne type rash (my skin's not great to begin with!)
9) skin thinning / stretch marks ( let's add them to my existing scars...)
10) flushing and night sweats ( guess that explains the difficulty sleeping...)
11) muscle wasting ( have a lot already)
12) Bone thinning with long term use ( again, my bones are weak already)
So there you have it, not for the faint-hearted. Of course I may not get any of these symptoms, but suffice to say it's a pretty hard-core drug, I'm just hoping it works for me...
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