Archive for May 2010
Steroids to Raise Blood Counts Works but….
Well, I was supposed to start radiation a little sooner than I actually did. I couldn’t start on schedule because my platelet count was low. I had a blood transfusion and then they put me on steriods for 5 days. The steroids gave me more energy, of course, but coming back off of them is hard because the fatique is so much worse then.
It worked though. Taking the steroids as well as eating as much red meat as I could, adding red wine at night, and eating stuff that helps build blood like liver, etc. and my platelet count was up over the 100,000 mark within a few days.
I wonder if that might be part of why my legs started hurting so bad around then.
That has been the worst thing I’ve had to deal with in all of this. They hurt so badly that I couldn’t sleep or even rest. My daughters all massaged them with these really good massage oils called Badger. It would feel so good while they were doing it but then the pain would come back.
When I told the nurses about it, they suggested I keep a bottle of yellow mustard by my bed and squirt a little in my mouth each time I woke with the pain. It did seem to help but, like the massage, the relief did not last long.
I finally decided to try going back on the L-Glutamine over the weekend. My daughter, Neva, had read some research that said I might not out to take it with radiation and my oncologist said it would be ok to stop but now I’m wondering if that’s why my legs are hurting so much worse.
Will update the blog as one of my daughters finds time. Hopefully, I will get some relief from the leg pain soon.
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