Jan 27 - chemo day and more PLP

16:45
I have had a bad few days with PLP ( Phantom Limb Pain). No sleep. Last night I took two tramacet pain killers, 2 Robaxin 750 muscle relaxers, one tripiline 25 tricyclic anti depression, a celebrex anti inflamatory, a lyrica 75 for nuropathic pain, and a domacot sleeping pill at 20:00. I was still wide awake in pain at 2:30. Couldn't read, play Sudoku, or surf.

Today the oncologist upped my lyrica to 150mg twice a day, and the tripiline to 50mg. and prescribed a B6/iron tablet for the low hemogoblin.

She also prescribed me Cymgen (Cymbalta 60mg). These make people gain weight fast, but Cymbalta seems to work for fibromyalgia, which is also a neuropathic pain.

Also she prescribed Tegretol. It is used for epilepsy
Tegretol (carbamazepine) is an anticonvulsant. It works by decreasing nerve impulses that cause seizures and pain.

If those don't work, then I will go see a psychiatrist.

Yesterday I went to see my physio lady and the prosthesis guy, Bradley.
She was impressed with my walking,and made me do weird walking exercises. They are hard to do and take lots of thinking.
She says I should always start walking with a step from the prosthetic leg first. That way I can be 100% sure it is in front and locked before walking. That is a good idea. Also in the kitchen where it is easy to reach for something with my good leg, which puts weight on the prosthetic toes and unlocks it. This means that when I reach for something and rock forward onto my good leg, I also unlock the prosthesis leg, so when I rock back, it is unlocked. Crash, boom, bang.
Always reach with the prosthesis leg leading.

Bradley says my stump is in that bad stage, when it won't fit in the socket in the morning, and hits the bottom by evening. A large variance in size as the day progresses.
He recommends that I wear the leg as long everyday as possible to shrink the stump to a steady size as soon as possible.

This morning I got up ready to put on the leg and wear it all day long util bedtime. But found my stump very tender, inside near the end. As if the end of the cut femur is poking into the muscle they wrapped around the end of it . I put on the liner, but it hurt pretty bad. I then realized that if I grip the stump anywhere, and pull the skin back toward my hip, I get pain. But it is like inside pain. There is nothing wrong with the skin anywhere.

So I took off the liner. and used only crutches to chemo and the shopping after. But by myself on crutches I have no free hands to shop with.
 I miss the leg.
So I crutched out of Woolies and away from all the health food, and crutched to the pizza place. They do free delivery within 20 kilometers. I had it delivered to my car outside in the parking lot.

I am now sleepy, but the PLP is bad. I had it in the pizza place, and at chemo. Even driving I could feel the foot.
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