A Quick In-and-Out

I did a quick in-and-out of the hospital yesterday in a (successful!) attempt to get my pain under control. The night before, the pain had spread to my chest and shoulder. I had a terrible time sleeping and couldn't control the pain with the drugs I had on hand. I had an appointment to see my oncologist the next morning so I thought I would just go in and tell her about it and see if she could sort it out. By the time I got to see her I was in excruciating pain, feeling fain and clammy and light headed. The nurse took one look at me and got me in a bed. The doctor got me on some hydromorphone (a concentrated derivative of morphine) which helped a lot with the pain. But there was some concern about the pain spread to my chest and shoulder so it was decided I would slide over to the ER and have some tests to rule out any nasty problems. I had a CT, ecg and a bunch of blood work that all ruled out all the really nasty stuff but they did find that I had a touch of pericarditis (inflammation of the lining of the heart). This was good news as treatment simply involves controlling the pain until it goes away. So, after another dose of hydromorphone, I was sent on my way with strict directions to keep up with the percosets and anti-inflamatories and check in with my doctor again on Tuesday. I spent almost all day at the hospital but it was good to come away with an answer to what was wrong and a solution to the problem. I'm feeling fine now with the pain under control. I hope to be off the pain meds by next week entirely. We'll see how that goes...