Pain relief

the gp didn’t take my mum seriously at all. We ended up going private for a second opinion and that’s how we eventually got the right scans and endoscopy before getting a diagnosis. Unfortunately this meant months of managing pain with paracetamol  the gp eventually prescribed Zomorph and oramorph to my mum. But this was after she was diagnosed and on the recommendation of a district nurse. Could you try contacting the gp again ? I hope you get something sorted for ur mum. Sending you lots of love & healing for ur mum x  

Thank you HopefulGabby for your reply. I am so sorry that your mum wasn’t heard. I hope things improved following diagnosis in that regard. I have spoken to my Mum about going back to GP next week if she needs to and will keep supporting her on that. She’s very stoic but it could be a few more weeks before we have formal diagnosis and don’t want her to endure pain she doesn’t need to. 
thanks for sharing the medicines your Mum got too. I hope she and you are ok as can be - sending love to you and thank you so much for sending yours x

Hi emsie333 sorry your mum is going through this, the GP should prescribe analgesics regardless of definitive diagnosis, given the mass. The pancreas has a complex nerve supply which causes a lot of pain, speak to the GP about this as well as break through pain control. I hope she is soon more comfortable. 

Thank you KLD, I really appreciate your reply. I have been looking at how painful it can be. I’m so sorry for everyone experiencing this. My Mum had a bad reaction to the codeine on Monday and basically didn’t know what was going on and was sick. We realised and went over to her house. She isn’t eating so that didn’t help at all. Was very worrying. I asked for GP visit and they came yesterday and prescribed oral morphine. She hasn’t started taking it yet as she’s shaky so I’ve ordered her some syringes so we can prepare the dose for her. I’m concerned about the side effects as with the codeine she just wasn’t sure what she had taken and when so I hope she’s not too drowsy or unwell. I will go after work today and be with her when she has first few doses. Any advice in terms of how long the morphine took to get used to would be helpful to hear or any advice. We are putting systems in place to ensure she doesn’t take too much. It’s very difficult without my Dad or someone with her 24/7. And hard for her. We will do all we can to be there as much as possible. 

My dad was started on oral morphine and it was the only thing that helped in the beginning, he is now on quite a few different medications after getting the palliative nurses involved so I hope you have been directed to them too for your mums symptom control. If not you can ask your GP to refer you. Sometimes one type of pain relief doesn’t work for certain pain and they are great at figuring out what works. 

sending love and strength 

Thank you KLD. I hope your Dad is as comfortable as he can be. I’m glad that the nurses have been helpful for him and working out best pain medication. My Dad had an amazing experience with MacMillan. Meant everything. 
My Mum has tried a dose of morphine and went ok so that’s reassuring. Although didn’t do a great deal for the pain. Going to speak to the GP about patches. She had her CT on Friday so we are now awaiting the appointment to find out what the situation is. She has noticeably lost more weight and her urine has changed as well as I think some jaundice. So we are being realistic about what we might hear but it’s v hard. 
sending love and strength to you and your Dad