What a shock for you Baglady, I am so sorry to hear of your diagnosis.  It is really difficult waiting for scans and results so I empathise with you for that and hope you have support around you to help you through the waiting period. I also hope that your GP can at least get your pain under control for you, it makes such a difference when we can at last be painfree (I started morphine 5wks ago and its helped sooooo much!).

Wishing you all the best and welcoming you to the forum.  Please keep us uptodate with how you are doing x

Ah, BagLady, who knows the workings of this rotten disease.  There seems to be no reason why it attacks some of us, taking away our dreams and hopes. My doctor has told me not to wait for pain but take medication constantly to keep it at bay - after all I cant do any more damage to my broken body!

You sound like you have had a wonderful time in the last years, certainly not wasted and having done what many would have liked to do.  I am a couple of years older than you but have done everything I wanted to do, I have been round the world a few times. Lived in NZ, been a deputy mayoress (great fun) and generally made the most of life.  Sadly I don't feel quite ready to relinquish it yet but I have to acceot what life has thrown at me.

Please come back and let us know how you get on.  Wishing you all the best.

Ah yes, the broken body.  One minute you're galumphing around the world as fit as a fiddle and the next you are laid low with no energy nor enthusiasm for the next adventure.  You seem to go from young to old overnight and suddenly people start treating you differently.  (Very annoying).

I first went to the doctor with pains in my right buttock.  I  put it down to the fact that I'd walked around 5 hours a day for years and worn out my hip.  Not so, according to x-rays.  Once their machine strayed up my body and landed on my lungs, they found the cancer and decided to look no further. It is now 18 months on and the agony  in my hip is quite unbearable.  Only now am I becoming incapacitated with coughing and shortness of breath but, had they addressed the problem in my hip in the first place, I might have had an enjoyable final year, even visiting my Australian family for one last time. I have now finally recieved an appointment for 19th December for a spinal MRI.  Too little too late, but I shall go out of curiosity.

My doctor too has prescribed me many, many pain relieving drugs and have a bag full of them sitting idle in the cupboard. I tried all of them but found little relief only awful side effects and have decided to take nothing until absolutely necessary, so not sure I agree with your doctor's theory.  I'm sticking with my evening pain-numbing whiskey, sitting outside in the cold where the air is pure, wrapped up warm, with my faithful Bassett Hound, Pepper, keeping me company.....  I think he knows.

Dogs do know, my beautiful gentle boxer lays with his head in my lap (dreadfully uncomfortabke because he weighs 92lb).  He now wont leave my side.  Very shortly he is going tolive with people who will give him a super life.  I have to know he is settled and happy before I leave.    Before this illnes I had taken only 3 days off work in 25 years and now I have gone from fit and healthy to a tired grumpy old miserable mess.  

The problem with any painkillers I takeis that they send me to sleep and I don't want to spend my life comatose,.  Think you may be right about the alcohol!  :-) let us know how the scan goes on the 19th, please.  I do hope you get some sensible answers!

Thank you for your kind thoughts.    Have been prescribed many pain reliefs in the past few months but none has been effective. 

My own lovely doctor was away on holiday when I last went to the practice and so I visited with another.  She prescribed me morphine patches, which I dutifully applied.  Little did I know that the max dosage for first time users is 12mgs and her prescription was for 25mgs. Never have I felt so ill.  I threw up in the garden.  I fell over, and even got lost just going to my bedroom because I was so 'out of it'!  Needless to say I have not applied them since. 

Truth is, I'm not yet in such pain that I can't cope.  Luckily I am with my family so don't have much work to do.   My big problem is choking on the 'fairy liquid' my lungs produce.  Researching on line, I see no hope.  Benalyn Mucus or Methadone seem to be the only alternatives offered.  Tried the Benalyn with no particular benefit and, as for Methadone, not keen to go down the junky road.

Hi Pauline and BL.  ..........  you are both so right about dogs knowing !  Mine definitely does.  He jumps up on my families laps but never onto mine, always beside me and avoids where I have pain.  He loves putting a paw on each of my hubbies shoulders but never does that to me because my portacath is there. The vet has told us that it's a definite that he is aware of my illness.  It's so sad (but very sensible) that your dog will be moving soon Pauline - this disease affects so many things that others in the 'real world' wouldn't even contemplate. Will you still be able to spend lots of time with him?  Ours stays away for a few days every three weeks when I go to London for chemo and the to-ing and fro-ing has just been accepted really well. 

It's a b.....r that you have both found pain control such a difficult thing to sort out.  After much trial and error I have to say that it seems so much better taking something continuously and not waiting for the pain before i take a dose.  I have been told that the patches are not as effective as the tablets but don't know for sure.

You two ladies have so much in common which is fab. You need to activate your private messaging and re-live all those great travelling tales to each other - I would imagine you have some wonderful stories to tell.  All the best to both of you. Take good care of yourselves x

Hi max56,

How are you? X

Hi dunanat. Good thanks, had a great day with friends. How about you? X

Hi max56,

Ah, Glad that you have had a good time. I am fine, thank you!

Pre-operative assessment has been brought forward to the 30th of this month. I suppose that I am slightly anxious about this as I have an eleven year old at home - he is the best boy ever.

You wouldn't be normal if you didn't feel anxious, who wouldn't?!  Just be good to get going with the treatments. Bet your son is looking forward to Christmas. How is he dealing with your situation? X