Man of small percentages 7.7.07

Let me start by telling my Mom that I love her and it was nice to have her here this past week. Mom was here for a little over a week, and flew home Thursday night.

I continue to be the man of small percentages. (insert joke here) ........ I started on Fentanyl a little over a week ago for pain control. Now my pain is much improved. Like I mentioned in my last post I still have pain, however the edge is off and with the patch I get a continually does of medication. This prevents me from waking up in sever pain and then spending half the day trying to get comfortable. The reason I mentioned the percentages is 3-5% of the people who use the fentanyl patch report having insomnia and or restlessness. I have been applying the patch at night before bed thinking that is when it would be most effective and the most likely to cause drowsiness. This past Monday I was up all night and couldn't figure why. So I started using a sleeping pill on Tuesday and every night since. Then on Thursday night after applying the patch and falling asleep I woke at 1 am. I was wide awake with no chance of returning to sleep. Even though I had taken a sleeping pill 4 and a half hours before. That is when I called the company that makes Fentanyl and found out about the insomnia. The insomnia has only been bad the first night of each new patch. I do not always get full nights sleep on the other nights but I have been getting more then 6 hours each night.

The past couple days I have felt better then I have in some time. I can not explain how I feel or how I feel that is better then how I felt previously. I seem to have a little more energy without really having more energy. That being said I feel asleep on the couch today (sitting up watching TV) for a couple hours and did not realize I was tired, however when Serena got home and I woke up I did not feel drowsy or fatigued. I walked around the park yesterday and this evening. That is the first time I have been able to walk (exercise) for quite some time. Probably over 2 months.

Tomorrow will be my last dose of my first cycle of Revlimid (chemo). I did not receive a call from my Oncologist regarding my weekly blood draws this week. I would usually call to find out but left it be this week. I figured I would get a call if anything was abnormal. I will have more labs on Monday. Along with counselling from a social worker and a Psychiatrist. It is protocol to be evaluated mentally before undergoing heavy chemo, radiation, and transplantation to make sure I am "capable" (insert second joke here) of understanding what I will go through and handle the actual treatment. So on Monday 8:30 am Hawaii Time I will be getting treatment and evaluation that most of you have always thought I needed.

Lastly I met up with Physical Therapy this past week. They were not able to help me what so ever. I am not looking for any bad karma so I'll leave it at that. I took a couple pictures on my walk tonight. For those of you who know Hawaii no description is necessary. Seen in the picture is Diamond Head. It is not called that because of it's shape, but how it appear to sparkle when viewed by British Seamen in the 1700. Serena and I live near the base of Diamond Head across from Kapiolani Park where the picture was taken from.