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Being a Spoonie with Cancer sucks Monkey Balls
I’ve been writing so much about having cancer here, I haven’t addressed the side issue of having both cancer and chronic illnesses.
Before cancer, I know I had:
- asthma
- spinal degenerative disorder
- neuralgia as a complication of the spinal disorder.
In the process of having cancer, I’ve found that I also have rheumatoid arthritis.
Of course I also found out that the treatment for it is the same as one of the drugs I was taking for the cancer, but less often.
So while some of my pain issues were worse, that one was better.
Until now.
For almost two weeks, I’ve had a headache, a low-level migraine that kept roaring into a full-blown incapacitating episode. It was strange though, because it was a motion headache, and it was happening in my ear. The right side of my skull also hurts.
I figured that was just a fun new manifestation of bone pain.
Yay.
Since the cancer started, I started to hear my blood rushing in my right ear. Apparently this is a special type of tinnitus that happens to people with anemia.
So I initially thought, this is that issue getting worse for a moment and it’ll go away.
Chronic pain teaches you to see if minor aches will just pass with heat applied or stretching.
Sadly, this also feeds into your high tolerance for pain, which can be bad if you’re, say, experiencing a headache that is the result of a middle ear infection that could spread to your brain.
Yes, apparently, I have one of those, and it calls for a strong antibiotic.
But the antibiotic causes tendonitis in people with rheumatoid arthritis.
And as is the case for people with both chronic illnesses and cancer, there are so many things to check out and investigate that takes precedence, ailments that could be life threatening take precedence.
Like taking a thousand tests to make sure the tumor in your chest is really benign or if it should be explored from yet another fucking perspective because of course all you have to do with your life is get in a bunch of machines.
GRRRRRRR!!!!
Breathe in. Punch out.
Okay I’m back.
So anyway. For the first time in two and a half weeks, my head is clear. But guess what?
I definitely have tendonitis. Any time I try to brush my hair with my left hand it goes batshit.
Which means I might need to stop taking this medicine. And go back to headaches until the new antibiotics take effect.
I hate everything.
