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Chronic pain after radiation for Stage IV Lung Cancer

Lung Cancer | Last Active: Sep 24, 2022 | Replies (14)

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@carlies

@tns - if you haven’t talked to anyone at Mayo’s pain clinic, that might be another option? This option wasn’t mentioned by an onco when I had pain. I heard of it from a Mayo anesthesiologist friend. Maybe acupuncture is another possibility?? Have you spoken with palliative care? Sometimes they have ideas? Best to you both-. 🙏

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Replies to "@tns - if you haven’t talked to anyone at Mayo’s pain clinic, that might be another..."

Thank You for replying back to my post, @carlies! I appreciate these suggestions. Her doctor was very hopeful that if the chemo was helping the lung cancer, (which it is, so far), the pain would also be reduced. Unfortunately so far, this doesn't seem to be the case, however, we've only had two of the scheduled four chemo sessions so it may yet improve. Oxycodone was helping for a time, however, it seems that now every time she takes it she either vomits it up right away or it just doesn't work at all to reduce the pain. I think maybe the Fentanyl patch helps a bit but not sure. She does have a palliative care physician who is very compassionate and she told us she has a lot of things they can try which could help my wife with the pain. I think part of the problem is that my wife is a bit impatient and sometimes she doesn't give things a chance to work before giving up on them. She has done two sessions of acupuncture and I think this could be something very good for her. Her worst pain seems to be in the upper back but they concentrated on that area the other day and it seems to be somewhat better. You suggested possibly talking to someone at Mayo's pain clinic as well. I was wondering if that was an option...maybe even getting an appointment with someone? We live in Denver but I know there is a clinic in Phoenix right? She has a Kaiser medicare supplement and her team is very good, however, I do wonder if the Mayo pain clinic could help her further with the pain.

Thanks again for your assistance and anyone else who can offer suggestions or share their similar experience.