Mum woke at 5.45am in considerable pain and took her oramorph. She went back to sleep until 11am but when she got up was in a lot of pain in her back and chest. Again she took the oramorph but by 1.30pm the pain was as bad as before. At 2.50pm I phoned the district nurse and told her what was happening. She told me mum should go back on her co-codamol, continue with the oramorph and the amitriptyline at night. This has knocked mum a bit as she hasn't had a lot of pain up until now and the painkillers were controlling it. She has not been pain free all day and has even been using a heat pad to try to get some relief. We've to ring the nurse tomorrow and let her know how it goes. I just wish when she started the amitriptyline last night they hadn't said to stop the co-codamol as she was fairly pain free apart from the pain and pins and needles in her hip and leg up to that point. If I'd known she could still take the co-codamol whilst taking the other drugs I would have given her it earlier. I know they'll sort it out though, just trial and error I suppose.
On a more positive note mum and I have started our programme to stop smoking. Today we had a cig after breakfast and then put on the patch. If we felt like a cig we have reached for the inhalator and so far so good. When we take the patch off tonight we can have 2 cigs. We've to do this for 3 weeks then cut them out completely. I know it's only a short time but I am proud that, given the circumstances, we have really cut down. I could easily smoke 20 by this time in the day so 1 is a big improvement.
All in ll this has been a day with some BAD and some GOOD!
