So I had an appointment with my palliative care doctor today to try and get some good pain killers for my chest pain. She didn't really know what the chest pain was but agreed that it was probably my pulmonary hypertension. Whether it's the effect if the pressures in my lungs or the effect of my lungs having to work harder. She did say it could be the iloprost but I'm not sure because the pain doesn't seem to get worse after I take it. She said it could be something to do with the stomach also because the pain is right at the bottom of my lungs so it could be something else. You have to be careful not to get fixated on the lung disease and just assume it's the lungs. I've had problems with my abdominal organs before now.
She didn't get any tests done because I'm going up to Bristol early November and it's best not to have too many x-rays if you can avoid it. They aren't dangerous really, but when you've had at least two a year for the whole of your life, the radiation starts to mount up a bit. There's no point having one in Gloucester for them to do new ones in Bristol in less than three weeks.
Anyway, she offered me a man made version of the oramorph, which tends to give people less side effects than the conventional form. I haven't tried it yet cause I have to drive back to Bath this afternoon and I don't want to risk it making me feel too drowsy to drive. There are lots of options if that doesn't work. It's just a case of finding the right painkiller for me. I'm glad I'm starting to get sorted on the pain killer front because I feel like my chest has got worse in the last few days. I'm hoping this new morphine is going to work. I'm falling a bit behind on my uni work. I think I'll have to spend tomorrow sending apology emails to all my tutors as I've missed a whole week of lectures now and I haven't recuperated at all. My palliative care doctor couldn't really help me on that apart from making sure I get a good night's sleep. Trouble is my pacemaker isn't very good at slowing my heart rate down enough to sleep. She said that was normal though so at least I feel less weird now. I've hallucinated whenever I've tried sleeping tablets so I'll just have to stick to camomile tea.
I'll keep you posted on whether the new morphine does the trick.
Thanks for reading :)
