It's amazing what medicines can do

As my readers will be aware I have been having considerable issues with the fact that my system is or at least appears to be in continuing rebellion against itself.

Apparently the scar tissues that I have managed to acquire in the course of treatments for various ailments since 2004 have become inflamed thanks perhaps to the side effects arising from at least one of those treatments - radiation therapy.

The next item of interest appears to be some calcification or something in the right shoulder area which I am told is most likely some arthritic condition. As you can imagine when the cartilage around the shoulders are either not there or are squashed or have become somewhat calcified then you can actually hear the grinding of bone on bone and you can imagine that this would produce some pain. Well it does.

Add these two elements together all on one side of the body and you have a condition which requires some serious efforts to control the pain that arises and doubles you over regularly.

So far we have tried just some Panadol on its own - this did not seem to have any noticeable effect. So we tried Mobic with the Panadol and this did work to some extent and was further assisted with some heat packs applied judiciously to the shoulder area both in the front and in the back.

A physiotherapist then provided some massage and some suggestions for exercise and these helped quite a lot although some of the impact of trying to strengthen muscles, tendons and sinews also leaves a mark as they begin to adapt to the new stresses placed on them.

So while on the one hand you KNOW that eventually the muscles will take up some of the slack that appears to have become present in the system the old adage about "no pain no gain" acquires considerable significance.

My GP then suggested Lyrica as something to consider in this mix. He advised that I should start off with a low dose of 1 capsule of the stuff twice a day and if you read the pamphlet which is in the container for this drug you will note that it has all sorts of warnings about when to take the drug how to take it and possible side effects etc.

All a bit daunting really especially as the drug is supposedly mostly to control some of the impact of epilepsy a condition I do NOT have. It does also control certain forms of pain and it is this aspect of its functionality that my doctor thought would be of assistance.

Well having taken the drug in the recommended dose I found that it had no real impact except perhaps on the first day of taking the stuff after which I seem to have managed to get used to it or something. In any event after a week or two of trying this stuff I took it back to the doctor suggesting that it was not working. He then suggested that I double the dose as his initial prescription was really a 'baby dose'.

Anyway to cut a long story short - I also asked for a referral to a Pain Clinic which I received and had a meeting with a Doctor who specialises in these matters. He advised that I should try the regimen suggested by the GP and if this did not work after a week or two of applying the treatment then perhaps there were more potent drugs that could be tried. All with the aim of reducing the levels of pain which were so debilitating that I spent a considerable amount of time either curled up in a foetal position with heat packs around me trying to get some relief and getting very very snappish and cranky in the process - NOT a good look for those around me!

He also suggested that as the effects of the drugs were obviously spaced over time there was a sort of curve where the potential impact of the pain was at it's highest as the effects of the drug were wearing off and before the effects of the new does could take effect. Made sense to me in this context when he suggested that it was time to take some Panadol or Panadine IF the pain was not manageable- at bottom of the curve when the effects were wearing off and the effects of the next dose had not yet circulated through the system.

As to when these periods were or what their time frame was this was something I would have to experiment with.

Yesterday was the first day on the new regimen of pills. Mobic, Lyrica and Nexium.

The results to date - a very short time span of course are quite amazing. I am NOT taking the Panadol or Panadine and yet the perceptions of the pain have changed quite significantly.

I can still feel the areas where the pain is and has been but now it is at a manageable level and seems to be in the background (if this makes sense) and feels somehow more of a dull background ache than before.

I guess it's early days, but this new regime may well work out. I have noted some of the side effects - some fuzziness when waking up and a brief period of being unsteady on the feet as well as a dry mouth which of course could also be due to my snoring during sleep - but I have not been doing that since I lost weight so we will just have to wait and see.

This morning I can say that I slept through the night with only one pit stop and having taken precautions against one of the other potential side effects (namely constipation) I was relieved (literally) when the measures to prevent this condition seem to have worked.

It's a good thing I like prunes is all I can say!

That's all for today's news - I will let people know how I get on but for the time being I hope that I can manage with just this regimen.

Health Care Consumers Association (ACT)

As many people are aware I joined the Health Care Consumers Association some time ago and was trained to become one of their Consumer Representatives.

I had the privilege of working for the Association representing it on one committee (so far) that was convened within the ACT Department of Health, concerning information management, Cancer Patients and IT.

Since then I have taken a keen interest in assisting where I can with their communication media including the new Consumer Bites and some suggestions for the management of their web site.

The other day, I was pleased to be able to meet members of the newly appointed staff of the Association who are shown in the photo.

Pictured are (L-R) Tony Greville, Kylie Martens, Robyn Hall, Darlene Cox and Lydele Thorensen

Tony Greville, the Association's new Policy Officer and I, were able to discuss my latest small contribution - some commentary on the Draft Cancer Service Plan 2008 - 2012 as Tony had been charged with formulating the Association's Response to this document.

Subsequently, I also had the opportunity to meet with Robyn Hall the Association's new Communication Coordinator with whom I spent some very pleasant time discussing the Association's future communications requirements and of course offering to assist in whatever way I could within my limited abilities.

We discussed among other things my recent article on IPTAS and how the Association could perhaps feature services like this on its web pages and mention it in its newsletter. Our discussions also encompassed some of the 'mad' notions that I have been carrying around with me about transforming what is a static representation of health consumer news into perhaps a more interactive format which would enable members of the ACT community at large to participate and ask questions which could then be answered by the erudite and experienced members of the Association.

Similarly we discussed the possibility of having expert members of the Association making contributions from their work as consumer representatives to the newsletter and to the web site content and also commissioning contributions from ACT Health Care providers about their fields of expertise.

Robyn remarked that it was likely that we had met in another life, when both of us had been employed by Centrelink.

I shamefacedly admitted that I was afraid that I could not recall this, although I had worked for that organisation and indeed its predecessor for some considerable number of years in a variety of capacities.

To hide my shame at not being able to remember her I blame an as yet undiscovered syndrome that is no doubt the flip side of what has been referred to as 'overuse syndrome, something I call "under-use syndrome." This is a state of memory where you can honestly say you really can lose it if you don't use it!

I had previously met Darlene of course, a stalwart of the Association and Lydele who had been kind enough to assist with some matters to do with the Association and especially with my paper work and phone calls.

I met Kylie only briefly - actually on my way out the door - as I was rushing off to another appointment - but even in that extremely brief encounter I felt really positive about her and indeed all of the other staff members who have been welcomed into the fold of the Association recently.

Given the high profile of the President Mr Russell McGowan and his recent appearances in the press about a number of issues, I suspect that the Association - now that it is once again fully staffed, will make 2008 a most memorable year.