Posts tagged: leg pain - Todd's Journey

Update

May 01, 2024 - Posted in The Journey by Todd with comments

Hello everyone,

I know many of you have been asking about Todd as it has been a while since his last post. In that post you may recall that Todd described his challenges with increasing pain in his upper leg/backside and a reduction in his mobility.

We now know the cause of this pain: cancer was detected in Todd's left hip bone. This is what is causing him so much pain.

The good news is that the doctors have implemented a plan to control Todd's pain and to treat the cancer. Todd will be meeting with the radiology oncologists at the Ottawa Hospital in the coming days to prepare for radiation therapy. The doctors have explained that this type of cancer responds well to radiation treatment, so the prognosis is good for a return to being cancer free.

Thank you for all your love and support,

Jamie

Not a great day

March 30, 2024 - Posted in The Journey by Todd with comments

Going through this Cancer journey has taught me a lot about myself, my disease, my tolerences and my mental health.

To say I never get down or frustrated would be an absolute untruth. As Jamie has often noted with me, I put on a different face when talking to my Doctors or Friends about certain issues, than I do when talking openly with Jamie or when I am not in the eye of others. I tend to minimize the pain I have, or make excuses as to why I am feeling a certain way, and it leaves my Doctors a little bit out of the loop. I know it's not good to be that way, but it is who I am.

As for you who have been following my blog (thank you) you will know that I am really struggling with leg pain and mobility issues. For the last little while we have been trying to work on pain management, which is very much a trial and error kind of approach. Balancing the need for pain medication, while not overdoing it is tricky.

Tonight, for the 2nd night in a row, the strength in my leg is very weak. If I put any pressure on it, the wrong way, it gives out. I am walking around with the use of a walker, and walking like at 90 year old man. It's embarassing, it's depressing for me, and it sets me back mentally by months.

Having fought back my bladder cancer to the point where I am cancer free, but to be faced with such immobility and pain now is just sad. The doctors don't yet know what has happened to my leg. We are waiting to have an MRI, and for the results of the X-Ray I went for last week. But it does seem to be worse every day.

I can't go anywhere anymore because longer distance drives just kill my leg, and I can barely walk even short distances. I have had three instances in the last two weeks where my leg gave out on me.

I hope one of the excellent doctors I have will finally figure it out for me, and get me on some treatment for it.

But yes, the face I put on for you, my friends, my doctors, my family is not always a truthful reflection on what I am going through.

Pain Management update

March 29, 2024 - Posted in The Journey by Todd with comments

We have been trying different approaches to my pain management in terms of my leg and sciatica. As mentioned, Dr. Morash is going to send me for an MRI just to see if there is anything specific around my piriformis muscle or with my lower back that may be impeding upon my sciatica nerve.

The only real way to resolve this issue is through movement of that muscle and rest at the same time. This was just not possible with the level of pain I was having with my leg.

We are now taking the approach of keeping on top of the pain by taking a pain killer every 4 hours, like clockwork, whether I need it or not, just to maintain a baseline of pain control.

This does seem to help a lot, (not so much overnight and first thing in the morning) but it is much more controlled during the day with less flareups and more relief.

The drawback to the pain management working is it causes me to be very drowsy during the day now. I nap almost every couple of hours for a half hour or so, but even that helps me a lot. Given my lack of sleep at night sometimes, I do feel like I am catching up on some sleep issues.

The pain in the muscle could still be a side effect of the immunotherapy that hasn't quite stopped yet. Until we get back the results of the MRI and X-Ray of that area, we don't yet have a good idea of what is going on there, and so it's difficult to start treatment without risking causing further problems.

But for now, it's back to napping for me. Just wanted to keep you all updated.

Thanks again for keeping in touch with me. It's always so good to hear from everyone. I could not have beat this major battle in my life without all of your support, prayers and wishes.

Took a spill today

March 22, 2024 - Posted in Uncategorized by Todd with comments

Took a bit of a spill this morning. While getting ready to head in for an x-ray on my hip and leg region, I reached to grab a pair of shoes, but while doing so, my left leg gave out, and I took a flat fall onto the floor. Pain was quite intense as it did pull quite significantly on my muscle.

After about 20 minutes of resting on the floor, and with the help of Jamie, I was able to get up again, and make my way back to the living room couch to recuperate.

I have to be very careful going forward because the last thing I need is to break something. For now I have to use my available walk aids (cane, walker, etc) in order to safely maintain stability while my leg heals.

We cancelled our trip to Las Vegas in May, as it is highly unlikely my leg will be in sufficient enough shape to manage 5 days in Las Vegas. And we just don't want to travel there, only to have a miserable trip.

We will get back to Vegas at some point, but right now Jamie and I are setting our goals on our 2025 April cruise to Hawaii. Hopefully by then (a year from now) we will be able to enjoy a very happy, successful vacation and honeymoon.

Leg issues and piriformis syndrome

March 20, 2024 - Posted in The Journey by Todd with comments

Hi All,

If yo yu have been following my journey, you will have learned by now that when you get Cancer, you enter a war with one of the worst diseases known. Cancer doesn't care about you, it cares about itself.

When you face Cancer head on, you truly go to war against it. And as in any war, to win you have to keep fighting the battles of war. Just when you've beaten one battle, another comes along. Some of those battles aren't directly cancer related, but they are collateral damage caused by your fight against the cancer.

Case in point. The biggest battle for me so far has been beating back the cancer to the point of regression, and in some cases almost making the cancer undetectable. That was a huge win in this war. However, to win that battle, I had to put my body through 5 surgeries, 2 nephrostomy tubes, one radiation treatment, 4 rounds of chemotherapy, and two rounds of immunotherapy. From all that, I suffered some collateral damage to other parts of my body.

My kidneys took a significant beating through all of this. They had to seriously work overtime at clearing out toxins, and the cancer had blocked my ureters from allowing my kidneys to drain that they became inflamed and damaged. The immunotherapy treatments were also found to have been damaging my kidneys. With the steroid treatment I am now undergoing, my kidneys are returning to normal function again. Slowly but surely.

The other major collateral damage I suffered during the battle with cancer, was a weakening/stiffening of certain muscle groups in my body.

For the better part of nine months, I have not been able to be very active for very long. This was due to the sheer amount of time I was either bed ridden for not able to actively move around (with nephrostomy tubes, catheters, recovery from surgery, etc.) While I tried to keep my muscles moving as much as I could, it was not easy.

It seems that one of the large muscles (the piriformis) muscle (basically your glute muscle) has stiffened and tightened. The muscle then pushes on my sciatica nerve which is causing me great pain in my left leg at times, making it difficult to move or get appropriate exercise to help the muscle.

To fix this problem, I will have to do regular, stretching and strengthening exercises on that muscle, however given the pain right now, it is very difficult.

The doctors are now trying to develop a good pain management plan in order to allow me to get through the days with minimal pain, and allow me to do more active movements.

Obviously beating back the cancer to the point of remission was the biggest battle won so far. These collateral damage battles will get fixed too. It just takes time, patience, and "less pain".