Category: Pain

Alive and Kicking

I thought we’d killed them!  In fact I had thought they were already dead well before the winter arrived.  We looked for them so many times only to be disappointed when we couldn’t see them.  I presumed the birds or next door’s cat had made them into a feast.  We had stopped feeding them, stopped ensuring the water was clean and had not given them a second thought when the pond froze over. 

Yet, here they are.  Alive and kicking!  More accurately, alive and swimming!  And eating!  Our fabulous fish, still zooming around in our horse trough from the 1800s; Seville (very orange), Beirut (grey white patches with orange head), and two whose names I can’t even remember!  What’s more there’s an extra bod!  It seems the fish got the memo about the Covid lockdown and decided to get busy!  Now, I need to find a new name for our new addition and rack my brain for the other names.  Where on earth were they hiding on all of those occasions we looked for them? 

Blue Sky London Day

Added meaning

I am going to add an interpretation to this event in my mind.  A helpful, healthy interpretation.  We can do that, we humans.  Our minds do it all the time.  We often add a narrative, meaning or attribution to an event that is negative, unhelpful and unhealthy.  When we do, pain and suffering soon follow. 

Alternatively, we can also add helpful, wonderful, healthy, inspiring, enjoyable narratives to events, circumstances, thoughts, feelings and sensations.  These can help us feel and create pleasure, celebration and hope.  I have decided the discovery of Seville, Beirut, Unknowns 1 and 2 and the new boy (maybe it is, maybe it isn’t) are a wonderful symbol of resilience, energy and thriving in a constantly changing environment and when faced with never ending challenges.  My darling fish, you are one of my sources of inspiration for 2021.

I too, am resilient, can find energy, thrive and feel alive no matter what challenges me and changes around me.  This doesn’t mean I will feel ‘up’ every moment of every day.  It doesn’t mean I won’t have the odd tough, emotional, low week.  It does mean that I can cope and I have hope.  Today, is a beautiful sunny blue sky London day, the fish are alive and I have had some great news about my body. 

Undulating caterpillar inching forward to new heights

Long tough road

The horrid month

It has been seven months since I wrote last.  Seven months since I came out from under the horrid month in hospital which almost broke me; the month where I had a stem cell transplant, a blood clot in my arm, a dangerous e-coli infection, went bald and could not be supported by an in-person visit from hubby.  That was the hardest part. 

Seven months since I got home from that experience only to be hit by a c-diff infection.  The time has gone so quickly and seems like a life time ago yet also feels like yesterday, raw, significant, a milestone, an awakening.  Covid, lockdown, fatigue, pain, overwhelm, slowness, feeling good then feeling shattered, taking on too much then letting somethings go. 

The last part of 2020 was a health roller coaster, though mostly without the sharp heights.  Instead it’s been more like an undulating caterpillar of three steps forward, two steps back, experiencing loss and frustration about not being able to do as much, or do things now in the way that I used to be able to do them (and may never be able to again) before embracing acceptance and commitment.  In recent months I have finally focussed on what I can do, in the way I can do things, and consequently felt healthier, happier and positive about moving in the right direction. 

I finally learned that slow can be good.  Really learned it.  Fully experienced it instead of deep down thinking it doesn’t really apply to me, only to others.  I’ve let go of ‘not being good enough’; put a stop to ‘I need to be hard on myself otherwise I won’t perform well, succeed, be respected, be ok, be enough’.  I reminded myself of my catch phrase for last year ‘consistency’ and how the long game even if played slowly, gently, is a good, healthy, empowering game to play. 

Another of life’s games has been restored: work.  I love it.  I love being the clinical psychologist I worked so hard to be.  I love making an authentic positive difference to other people, helping them learn about themselves, find their answers, try out their new skills, manage their mental health and become their own mental health coach.  I love helping people identify what matters most to them, know their values, embody their values daily and use their values to guide their decisions, make and deepen connections, grow and feel whole.  Even writing this paragraph feels inspiring. 

Skin reaction to UTI infection – immune system out of kilter

Yet another infection

Yes it’s been tough and it continues to be tough. My immune system has needed constant boosts of growth injections to help it stand on its own two feet.  Some people with Myeloma recover steadily after their transplant, some are back to work and exercise within three months.  I wasn’t.  I couldn’t.  My body simply couldn’t cope.  It needed more time, more nurturing, more monitoring, more help.  I needed more help and that’s OK. 

Then, once again as I sat safely in the hands of my amazing medical team and began to improve in the early days of January 2021, WHAM, another infection.  Another ‘we need to admit you to hospital’.  Sigh. This was a bummer. 

My mind began racing.  I can’t do this again.  I don’t want to be in hospital, without hubby, during covid, when the risk of coronavirus is high.  I’ll fall apart if I have stay in hospital again…don’t make stupid mistakes, if the oncologist says you should be in hospital, you should go…I don’t want to, it means another PICC line, another chance of a clot, more chances of infection, more chances of low mood and slower recovery.  Please, please, please, let there be another way. Is the Universe giving me another test?  Really?  Don’t I deserve a break?  My mind went to all the old negative unhelpful places. 

Resigned and ready for hospital admission

Back to hospital

Eventually I came up for air, paused, took a breath and calmed my mind down.  I nutted things out with hubby and made a plan.  I negotiated with the medical team that I would medicate and monitor at home, have two weekly check-ups and admit myself if I got worse.  Relieved I didn’t have to go in, I packed my bags just in case, cried and begged my body to get better.  It didn’t.  It got worse.  Fever, weight loss, no appetite, no energy and high temperatures.  Then arrival of a reactive inflammatory skin condition, joint pain, swollen ankles, knees and knuckles.  Lovely. 

Never by halves Janino.  It wasn’t covid, when covid was all the rage and one I wouldn’t wish on anyone.  This hiccup was all caused by a bloody annoying urinary tract infection (UTI) that most of us would send packing to the hills.  Instead with my immunocompromised self, it stuck around, dug in and said ‘hey, you are not getting rid of me that easily’ and what’s more ‘I am going to wreak havoc all over your body’.  I can almost hear the UTI saying, ‘Yeeha, playtime!’

I dressed in clothes to get straight into a hospital bed and reluctantly presented myself for admission at the Haematology Assessment Unit.  Six hours later I was home.  Yeah.  Home.  How cool was that!!  The team had made another plan.  They propped me up with some different medication, organised a dermatology and rheumatology consultation, and knowing how I felt about admission, had reviewed and decided I would recover better and be at less risk, at home.  Here I was back in my safe place again.  Relieved.  Pleased.  Begging my body to improve and begging the bugs to stop bringing my life to a screaming halt over and over again. 

Birthday meal in Lockdown – delicious! Look at those curls!

Walking the talk: I asked for help

The UTI is gone, the skin flare has gone and I’m on a four week steroid cycle for the reactive arthritis that seems to have stemmed from my immune system going into overdrive trying to get rid of the nasties.  I even have a full head of thick hair, albeit an inch all over and bouncy curls I’ve never had before.  I’ll take it.  The arthritis may be challenging, it’s hard to walk because of remaining swelling and pain in my ankles and knees.  It’s virtually impossible to turn anything or pick up anything up with my left wrist but right now I’m feeling good.  It’s been a good two weeks. 

I’ve even re-learned that it is OK to ask for help; help to put my shoes on, cut up food, unscrew the top on a jar, get dressed, stand up, get to appointments, get in and out of a car.  It pushed all my buttons about needing to be independent, not being a burden, and telling myself I just need to get on with it.  I learned to ask for support and for asking and receiving support, to be ok. 

Catching hubby laughing at me for trying to help myself and my being too stubborn to ask him for help did both annoy me and make me laugh; at myself and him.  He knew that gently teasing me was exactly what I needed and often need to help me keep perspective.  I can cope with this residual pain and swelling.  It will pass.  Something else will show up and I’ll deal with that too.  In the meantime, the news from my clinic review today made today an even better day.

Hey body – I hope you know how loved you are

The good news

My immune system is BACK. 

My neutrophils are now up over 5 after struggling to stay over 1.   My body is generating lovely new cells and my platelets are now over 180.  My paraprotein levels are stable coming in between 4 and 6 for the last three months.  Whoop whoop!!

What’s more, I have tolerated my first Covid vaccine (Pfizer) well, with no side effects.  I can now have all of my other childhood vaccinations re-done.  My body is ready.  Thank you, body!  I knew you’d show up.  Well most days I did.  Occasionally I wondered if you were going to say it is too much hard work but here you are, showing up and stepping up.  Thank you! 

I am so so grateful because I love life. I still have a lot to do and more importantly, I still have a lot of person to BE.  I can BE and do that now thanks to you, body.  Once fully jabbed with all the renewed protection, I will be much safer out and about in the community again.  The vaccination timing is looking good for alignment to when UK lockdown eases.  Yippee.

I am now on six weekly monitoring instead of having to go up to hospital for one thing or another at least once per week.  This is thrilling!  This is normal life!!

Latest science about Metabolic Pathways in Multiple Myeloma

Cellular Metabolic Pathways in Multiple Myeloma

 Super scientist

I am becoming super geeky about Myeloma and have begun reading loads of journal articles about the metabolic pathways, processes, genes and enzymes that cause, maintain and promote Myeloma relapse.  I wasn’t ready for this level of biochemical detail before but now I seem to be able to absorb the info and am fascinated by it.  The brain fog has lifted!   In case you fancy a bit of geeky biochem cancer guff – check out this link

I am learning about how to shut down the pathways, fuel and microenvironment that Myeloma likes the best – predominantly glycolysis and glutaminolysis.  This new in-depth knowledge feels empowering, gives me a sense of control, is already helping inform my decisions about further treatment and identify changes and renewed commitments to my preferred lifestyle choices.  A new chapter is opening in my life, health and Myeloma journey.  I am working on creating the best integrated health care plan that I can. 

I am still being realistic.  I haven’t forgotten the stats.  I am still in my 5^th year of a 7-10 year prognosis.  For now, nothing is off the table; the traditional medical route, off-label drugs, supplements (specifically targeted to block pathways), Jane McLelland’s Metro Map and How to Starve Cancer approach, Chris Woollams Canceractive approach, meditation, exercise, oxygen therapy.  I feel full of hope for thriving, for a high quality life, a long life and I feel good. 

I am alive and kicking.

All there is to do now is to be and sit in this feeling, let it cover me like a cloak or envelope me like an exceptionally warm, comfy hoodie, which seems to be all I wear these days! 

P.s. Tookie – while I do love you, keep your paws out of our pond!

Acknowledgements

Images: 

Me and hubby

Unsplash:

Rebecca Campbell – Goldfish; Erik Karitis – Caterpillar; Jon Tyson – Good news; Kristine Wook – Vaccine Teddy Bear; Brandi Ibrao – I hope you know how loved you are; Chewy – black and white cat

© 2021 Janine Hayward www.psychingoutcancer.com.  All rights reserved.

Posted in Blood Clots, C-diff, Covid, E.Coli, Fatigue, Glutaminolysis, Glycolysis, Metabolic Pathways, Pain, Psychology for Cancer, Stem Cell Transplant SCT Tagged with: Blood Cancer, Bone Cancer, Cancer, Crises and Stress, Fatigue, Immune, Immunosuppressed, Mental Health, Metabolic Pathways, Metabolism, Myeloma, Psychology, Stem Cell Transplant, Tumour Microenvironment

Hedgehogs at a rave

Peripheral neuropathy. A fancy pants way of saying pins and needles. Except it is a bit more than that and the more, is scary. When tingling on the soles of my feet and in my hands turned to prickles and cried out for attention, I had just started my 14th cycle of chemo.  At night, as if hedgehogs at a rave, the prickles began dancing around, keeping me awake. My self congratulation for having coped well so far and immense gratitude to my body now seemed a little premature or at least to have jinxed me.  A strange oscillation between numbness and pain set in. At first, it came and went so I wasn’t too worried. I kept up the once a week, Maintenance Chemo.

Pain

The pain got worse. The tingling turned to a sharp micro needle feeling and the ache crawled up my left arm.  I remember thinking, this isn’t good. I started talking to hubby about wondering whether the benefits of chemo still outweighed the side effects. We decided they did. I kept going.

So, did the sensation and the pain. The cannula insertion became excruciating. The drip of the drug into my forearm was ok but by the end of the treatment the whole arm throbbed; I hadn’t had that before. In the days in between chemo, the pain, numbness and needling rollercoaster, deepened and didn’t let up. I felt increasingly fatigued, distracted and unable to concentrate.  Pain will do that. The symptoms eased a little if I did nothing and stopped using my hands altogether. Have you tried that? It is nigh on impossible! My weekends became slow, sedentary, dull; low mood came a calling.

Peripheral neuropathy doesn’t like hands

Then it hit me; the way I hold a pen had changed.  The length of time I could hold a hairdryer and the way I used a hair brush had changed.  Whenever a cap needed to come off a bottle, I now ask for help. I was using two hands to open doors or press flush buttons on toilets. Cooking had virtually stopped (and I had thought I was being lazy) instead  lifting chopping boards, holding pans, taking roasting dishes out of the oven were difficult. I no longer enjoyed being in the kitchen. No wonder I’d started avoiding it. Hubby rattled off a list of other things I’d stopped doing or was doing differently.

I felt exhausted just thinking about it. Should I stop treatment? Should I keep going? Would I lose the use of my hands if I continued with chemo? What would life be like if I couldn’t use my hands? If the pain was too much? Was I being a wimp? I’m on a clinical trial, I signed the forms, I committed to it; could I simply stop? What would happen to me if I did stop? Would my cancer flare? Was chemo worth it? Was chemo making things worse? How do I decide whether to continue something that may extend my life, when it seems to be significantly reducing, the quality of the life, I have left? My brain; the whizzing and often unhelpful thought production machine, joined the rave.

Holding pattern

I told my oncologists what we had noticed about the difficulty using my hands and how I was questioning whether to stay on the trial; questioning whether more chemo was the best thing for me.  They ran a few tests and determined I had lost strength in my hands, especially my left hand. They recommended I defer chemo for a week.

That week came and went with no improvement.  I went into a holding pattern for another week. Peripheral neuropathy is the pits and as well as dancing needles it feels like being burnt, a searing. The pain was constant, in my shoulder, my forearm and using my hands made everything worse. More MRIs were ordered. I started to worry about new lesions. Was it peripheral neuropathy? Would it get worse? Was it something else?

Deal or no deal

It came down to one week and the limit of missed weeks allowed when on the trial. I had happily missed a few weeks of treatment to be with Mum during part of her radiotherapy and then missed additional weeks while we waited to see if the pain and hand function would improve. We now had to decide, the medical team, hubby and I, the best next step for the one remaining week; chemo or no chemo. Sounds like deal or no deal except there was no money involved, no windfall or good luck, instead hope or no hope. Bones versus hands.

Hands won. Living rather than life, won. This time.  Drs L and A recommended I stop chemo; they didn’t want my hands to get worse and so I was kicked off the trial.

After 21 months, 17 cycles of chemo, virtually weekly blood withdrawal, 100 odd cannula insertions…it was time to give the body a break.

Care as Usual

I went off the trial and on to ‘care as usual’. What I didn’t factor in, was that meant I would no longer be looked after by the trial team, the team that had had my back from the beginning, the team I had come to know, feel safe with, could express my fears and questions to and laugh with. I would be losing the team that had been with me since March 2017 when I first stepped into the Chemo Day Unit and steeled myself for the uncertainty of cancer treatment. Sigh.

Then of course there were the dominos. The other life challenges, falling thick and fast. Not sure what I mean? See my last post, Silent Dominos.

So while still dealing with Mum’s recovery and ‘what next’ (she’s amazing by the way) and my peripheral neuropathy and hand malfunction… along came the next three dominos:

• Changing treatment, care team and feeling cast out into a new uncertain hospital process
• Dad’s Melanoma came back
• My cancer got worse

Who on earth had it in for my family?  Who had we unintentionally, unwittingly, annoyed?

All of us with cancer. At the same time.

We didn’t deserve this. No one does.  I needed to remind myself:

Cancer doesn’t care who you are or what you have or haven’t done.  It’s simply not that choosy.

Posted in Cancer in my family, Chemotherapy for Myeloma, Myeloma Treatment, Pain, peripheral neuropathy, Symptoms and Side Effects Tagged with: Cancer, Chemotherapy, feet, hands, Myeloma, peripheral neuropathy, pins and needles, Side effects, Treatment

Vampires, Angels and Twiki

Hooked up

My blood spurts everywhere like a regular Fright Night or Halloween movie.  The nurse is trying to put a cannula into each arm, a bloody big cannula, much bigger than my normal (ha ha) Chemo cannula.  The nurse is new to this treatment and seriously nervous. Great. I’m not in the mood today. The mood.  The mood where I am happy to be part of someone else’s learning curve.  I’m just not.  Now she’s made a mistake and there is blood everywhere.  My blood.  My very, very, precious blood.

Another nurse pounces with a clamp and gets everything back under control.  For now. Except, I feel sticky.  My leggings and legs are spattered with blood.  The pillows and bed coverings are no longer pristine white. Stressed, I blurt out, ‘I don’t want to be anyone’s experiment’.  The nervous nurse (NN, my nickname for her) looks horrified. She reassures me that I am nobody’s experiment. Her body language and voice sound like she is trying to convince herself that everything is OK.  I think ‘I can’t afford to lose any more blood; get me someone who has done this A LOT’.  But I don’t say this out loud.  I hope it, instead.  I calm down a bit and give NN, a smile of, ‘it’s ok’. It’s not OK but I figure I need her to be calm.  Everyone makes mistakes. In the grand scheme of Myeloma treatment, this wasn’t a bad one (so long as I don’t end up needing that runaway blood).

I am in the Apheresis unit, finally all wired up (ready for ‘take off’?) to a clever centrifuge machine (very CSI) labelled 3OJO (MOJO with a 3?  A machine with 3 times the MOJO?).  Anyway, this machine specialises in taking blood out of one arm (Vampire-esq), separating out plasma and stem cells and then giving what remains of my blood, back to me, through the other arm (Angel-like). Genius! my niece would say.

I try to relax.  The machine’s sound reminds hubby of ‘‘beedie beedie’ so we nickname it, Twiki, and completely ignore the OJO’s in the end.  Do you remember the TV show called Buck Rodgers? Twiki is a silver robot (cute but with unfortunate haircut) known in the show for saying ‘beedie beedie’ to everything.  Very effective.  I’ll think I’ll use it.

Twiki with a lot of mojo (Stem Cell Collection machine)

All the fancy stuff Twiki monitors

I’m quite intrigued by my blood and its component parts…hanging in a bag next to me is the plasma, a funny yellow colour and next to it, slowly, salmon pink (apparently, that’s a good colour) stem cells appear.  Also on the line in bags are saline (isn’t it always?) and an anti-coagulant.  My lips begin to tingle strangely and I feel a bit faint.  I let the nurses know.  They have warned me this can happen.  My calcium level is ramped up and I’m lowered down a bit in the bed.  A song pops in to my head…Blood, Blood, Glorious Blood…There’s nothing quite like it…My Glorious Blood.

Boredom kicks in for hubby soon after arrival, I’m not very talkative today.  I can’t sleep because to help collection along I am required to pump the stress ball, all day, only taking breaks for a few minutes every 10-15 minutes.  Hubby checks out all the bells, whistles and knobs on Twiki and marginally resists touching them (knobs after all) and is now entertaining himself by dancing on the spot.  I’m trying to work out which music he’s listening to because he occasionally is singing out loud, unintentionally I think, and boy his lyrics are dubious!  The nurses and I catch a look and laugh.  Glad he’s got a day job!  Though I’ve secretly always loved his dance moves.  I still can’t work out which songs he is listening too.  Turns out he’s immersed himself in 70s and 80s and he’s running through Hall and Oates hits (would never have guessed).  We share headphones and have a laugh with the past.  Today is turning into a retro day.

I arrived at 8.30am and it’s now 5pm and I too, am very bored; so ready to be out of here.  I’m waiting for lab results to come back and say they’ve taken enough stem cells. For the last four days, I’ve had G-CSF injections that stimulate the stem cells to move out of my bone marrow and into my blood so Twiki can collect them.  This is preferential to the other option of having them collected directly from the marrow (painful, long, more chance of complications, I suspect).

The injections have some seriously weird side effects; they cause pain from inside my bones (ironically similarly to the way Myeloma does…there are so many ironies with this overall treatment process, seemingly making things worse in order to make things better!).  At random points, shots of pain would pulse from my rib cage or my pelvis, take my breath away and stop me in my tracks.  It would usually be gone within 5-10 minutes and then be back again 10 minutes later or half an hour later or whenever it decided!

Lab results this morning told me the injections had ‘done their thang’ and the detectable level of stem cells in my blood (CD34+ test) was well over the count required to go ahead with Twiki’s collection manoeuvres.  Thank goodness.  The collection target is 7 million stem cells per kilogram of body weight and I hope it can be done in one hit, today.  The results come back and they are good but I still need to rock back up tomorrow (and take another injection).  They have collected 5 million.  A few more are needed.  Hubby and I walk home slowly.  I feel shattered.

I’m baaackk!   The next morning is a funny affair, no more escaping blood and instead a new approach.  Yesterday’s senior nurse seemed to be cautious in approach, going slowly and setting things up so blood clotting was avoided.  Today’s senior nurse explains she prefers to deal with problems when they arise and ‘we’re going to go for it’ and monitor everything carefully.  Funny, I thought coming in two days in a row for the same treatment would ‘be the same’; a standardised process.  I hadn’t factored in the human element and the nurses’ different strategies. Today’s target is 3 million stem cells per kg of body weight so info is plugged into Twiki and I lie back and ?? think of England?  More like think ‘please please collect everything needed quickly’.  It’s an all-day affair again.  My potassium and calcium levels need propping up so I go home with extra meds to add to my ever-growing list.

The call comes through an hour later; they’ve collected another 5 million.  Excellent that’s 10 million stem cells altogether.  They’re sent off for cryopreservation (storage in liquid nitrogen at some crazy temperature, −196°C).  I’m relieved.  Maybe that’s enough for three transplants in the future.  Maybe I’ll live longer thanks to these.  If that’s the case then this last week has been a tiny investment; completely worthwhile.

Turns out from discussions with my clinician later that three transplants are not routinely given at the moment and there is no evidence supporting their benefit.  Instead, the transplant team would usually spilt the 10 million stem cells gathered into two larger lots, for each of the two transplants.  Supposedly there have been some benefits found for higher amounts of stem cells being used per transplant.

Oh well, you never know.  By the time, I need the second one maybe they won’t need as many cells after all and I can eek out another transplant.  Or my transplants will be so successful I won’t need a third one.  Or it will be what it will be, completely in line with current evidence and practice.  I’ll worry about that when it happens.

As part of the clinical trial I am on, I’ve been randomised to another four months of chemo (Carfilzomib, Cyclosphamide and Dexamethazone, half the Dex dose than in the previous four months) rather than an immediate transplant.  I don’t need to worry about the transplant details right now unless something goes a bit wrong and the Myeloma comes back with a vengeance sooner rather than later (after all it is always going to come back).  I crash for two days (the cat loves it) and feel really shattered for the week.

Post collection rest

The good news about my Myeloma is that its presence in my body after the first four months of Chemo has dropped; the IgG kappa paraprotein level is down to 6g/l after being as high as 42g/l.  It’s not quite the 100% response rate I was hoping for but it is damn good.  It is not usual for this rate to rise again for a year.  I’ll have regular tests and jump on it if it decides to buck the trend.

I’m a bit low in mood and I think this is mainly due to low potassium and not knowing what the next phase of treatment is.  Dealing with uncertainty is tough and coping well with it, ebbs and flows.  That’s normal.  I have talked about this in previous blog posts.  I’m also nervous (my turn).  I have a pet-ct scan coming up this week.  Will the radioactive sugar stuff sent into my body find new lesions in my bone marrow, new weak spots or confirm that the treatment has worked brilliantly so far?

Maybe it is a good time to explore my relationship with illness and health.  I can step out of project mode for a moment, round one of treatment has been accomplished.  Now, is as good a time as any to face asking myself, in a more structured way, what it means to have incurable cancer, what it means to be ill.  Which factors, which thoughts, beliefs, feelings and sensations are influencing my health behaviour, my coping…and not coping?

Psychology

One established psychological and behavioural model for explaining how we think about, respond to and manage threats to our health is Leventhal’s common sense model of self-regulation of health and illness¹.  Here are three of the concepts at the heart of the model.

1. our perceptions of our illness directly influence our coping strategies, which in turn influence outcomes.
2. our perceptions and resulting mental representations of illness and health threats have two parallel processes, a cognitive representation (our beliefs about; our identity, causes, consequences, timeline, coherent understanding and control/curability of our illness) and an emotional representation (our fear, distress, anger, worry, depression, guilt or other affective states). We use these mental representations to make sense of threats to our health.
3. we actively engage in problem solving by testing coping strategies (aimed to manage fear from emotions, and danger from cognitions), and checking whether the coping strategies have worked, to help us reach goals (e.g. to overcome cancer, to survive as long as possible, to overcome anger and be the person we wish to present to the world/think ourselves to be despite illness or to be well enough to play with our children every day)

The model is one way of explaining how we go about reducing the tension that arises between holding on and letting go of important values and goals as we come under threat from ill health, disease processes and treatment impact and side effects.  Figure1 below shows this in a bit more detail.

I thought I’d use this model to explore my thinking, beliefs, biases and assumptions about my current health.  If you are managing pain, chronic illness, cancer or caring for someone who is ill, I hope you find it helpful to ask yourself similar questions.  I encourage you to notice the thoughts that pop into your mind without judging them; they may surprise you.  When I work with clients who are living with ill health using this model, they often discover something that they had no idea was influencing their sense of self, or making them feel worse or they discover a rule they had imposed on themselves, based on an unchallenged belief about what it means to be unwell or to be going to hospital or taking medication.

Where to start?

I start by asking myself;

what does ‘health’ and ‘being healthy’ mean to me?

what does being ‘ill’, ‘ill health’, ‘being sick’ mean to me?

Do these concepts mean different things when I think about myself versus when I think about others?

What does it mean to be diagnosed with cancer? With Myeloma?  What does it mean about me that I have been diagnosed with cancer, with Myeloma?  If it was my partner or a stranger with the diagnosis how would the meaning of having cancer/Myeloma be different?

Figure 1. Hagger and Orbell’s (2003) schematic representation of

Leventhal’s (1980) Common Sense Model of Illness (CSM).²

What do I ask next?

I explore a range of questions with myself about the mental representations I have about being unwell and under threat from cancer.   While I work through each question and consider my answers, I also explore how my responses make me feel and what I will do to cope with the event and the feeling.

Stimuli

What am I experiencing?

What are my symptoms? (e.g. pain, fatigue, breathlessness)

What is telling me I’m unwell?  (test results, pain, reduced mobility, hospital appointments)

What do I know about my illness?

Where is my information coming from? (external: medical team, support groups, google, other patients; and internal: physical and mental experiences)

What are my symptoms? (e.g. pain, fatigue, breathlessness)

What is telling me I’m unwell?  (test results, pain, reduced mobility, hospital appointments, calls from medical team)

What do I think about where the information is coming from?

Cause

What do I think has caused my illness?  Do I think any of it is my fault?  Someone else’s fault?  How has my illness come about?  What do I think about the cause/s?

Consequences

What are the consequences for me, of my being diagnosed with cancer? From being unwell?  What will I be able to do and not do?  Will my life change? How will my life change?  How will my relationships change?

What are the consequences for others of my being diagnosed with cancer?  From being unwell?  How will their life change?

Control /Curable

How much control do I have over what is happening to me? Over being sick?  Over getting well?

How much do I think and believe my illness is; curable? able to be overcome? able to be managed well?

What do the consequences of the illness (e.g. likely outcomes, treatments, having to have chemo, a transplant, hospital visits and beyond) mean about who I am? what I am? My capabilities? My sense of being a woman? A daughter? A wife? A lover? An academic? A clinician? An exercise bunny? A coffee lover?  Looking at all the aspects of my sense of self what does being ill, having cancer mean for each of those and who I am?  No change? A change? For better? For worse?

Timeline

How long will I be ill?  Will any changes and consequences be temporary? permanent? If my life changes will I be able to change it back once I am well or coping with the illness? Will it be the same as before?

Emotions

In addition to any coping strategies captured while gathering responses to the questions above…

How do I feel overall, right now, today?

How do I feel about being unwell?  How do I feel about having cancer?  How do I feel about each aspect above; the causes? The consequences? My sense of self? The controllability? Curability? How long I’ll be unwell? How do I feel about each of these?  How do I feel about my thoughts and beliefs about each of these?

Coping strategies

In addition to any coping strategies captured while gathering responses to the questions above…

How will I cope?  What am I trying? What makes me feel better? Feel worse?

What will I do?  What will I avoid doing? Will I ask for help?  From who and where will I ask for help?  What will I practice thinking? Not thinking about?  Where will I put my energy?  What will I focus on? Avoid focussing on?

What emotions will I allow myself to express?  Are there any that I am not happy to express?  Why?

Appraisal of coping so far

What has worked well so far? What helped the coping strategy to work well?  What hasn’t worked well? How did it not work well?  What were the outcomes?

What do I want to change, try next, no longer try?

Working through these questions and using this type of model is challenging to do alone and isn’t something that is likely to be done and dusted in one sitting or even one day.  It may take time to make the enquiry of yourself and find your answers.  Notice the answers that pop into your thoughts, into your head.  The answers may be scary sometimes, difficult to acknowledge or leave you feeling upset and distressed. 

It is important to be kind to yourself during this enquiry.  Its ok to take breaks.  Its ok to feel distressed after noticing the answers.  It’s a good idea to do something nice for yourself after working through these questions.  These are difficult questions for anyone to look at, let alone anyone who is living with ill health or a life-threatening health concern. 

Remember the aims of making the enquiry is to

• understand how we are making sense of our own health, ill health, diagnosis and health journey
• notice the factors influencing both our coping strategies and our appraisals of the outcomes from our chosen methods of coping.
• identify coping strategies that are likely to be most useful (complement our treatment and enhance our behaviour and management of illness, Myeloma) and drop the strategies that don’t work so well

Ultimately, by bringing our mental representations into our consciousness, our awareness, we may be able to pause and challenge some of them, more easily accept others, and create and foster new helpful health representations.

Many patients perceive they can stand extreme toxic Chemo therapy when they also hope and feel that it may result in a cure.³ There is no cure for Myeloma so how do Myeloma patients, how do I, stomach Chemotherapy? Do I stomach it because I hope it buys me time for living and time for a cure to be found, or buys me less pain, less discomfort, more quality of life?  How am I managing fear control and danger control?  What are my representations of illness?  How vulnerable am I?  How motivated am I to take self-protective steps?  How easily accessible is my motivation?  When is it easy, when is it difficult, for me to do the right things, to look after myself, adhere to medical advice, and adhere to the other complimentary advice I have chosen to follow?

Watch this space – I’ll post my answers over the next week or so to give you an idea of what this type of enquiry might look like…and then I’ll talk about what you might do with knowing your answers – how bringing the answers into your consciousness can help us to better manage the challenges that face us, illness based or otherwise.

Right now, I need a break so I only have one answer for you…

Beedie Beedie.

References

¹ Leventhal, H., Meyer, D. and Nerenz, D. (1980). The common sense model of illness danger. In: Rachman, S. (Ed.), Medical psychology, Vol. 2. pp. 7–30. Pergamon, New York.

https://www.academia.edu/259452/The_Common_Sense_Representation_of_Illness_Danger

² Hagger, M. S., & Orbell, S. (2003). A meta-analytic review of the common-sense model of illness representations. Psychology and health, 18(2), 141-184.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/250571403_A_Meta-Analytic_Review_of_the_Common-Sense_Model_of_Illness_Representations

³ Cameron, L. D., & Leventhal, H. (Eds.). (2003). The self-regulation of health and illness behaviour. psychology press.

https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=P3UoIuANmrIC&oi=fnd&pg=PR8&dq=The+self-regulation+of+health+and+illness+behaviour.+psychology+press.&ots=ARDdFKnVmY&sig=hU9R0fsNauKIs04RB3iezy-yAyA#v=onepage&q&f=false

Posted in Myeloma Treatment, Pain, Psychology for Cancer, Symptoms and Side Effects Tagged with: Apheresis, Cancer, Clinical Trial, Fatigue, Harvest, Myeloma, Para Protein, Psychology, Randomisation, Stem Cell Collection, Therapy, Transplant

Pain

So now you show up.  Its 3.30am.  I’ve only had three and half hours sleep and now you have woken me.  Why now Pain?  Where were you before? Where were you when I was meant to have known you, during this stage one of illness that I seemed to have skipped? Are you Myeloma pain or chemo pain? Or universe forbid, something else pain?  and sheesh, why butt pain?  Is that your sense of humour?  If it is, you are not very funny.  Especially when my heat pack doesn’t stretch that far!

Though….now that I think about it.  Thank you.  Thanks for not showing up too much in the past.  Yes, I’ve been in and out of physio so much that it had begun to feel like a second home.  Friends sitting behind me in lectures were probably sick of my constant fidgeting and neck stretching.  Yet in the scheme of things, I haven’t been in much pain at all over the years.  I’m grateful for that.  You haven’t stopped me doing the things I love.  Until now.  I love sleep and would like some more please!!!

Interesting that you show up tonight when I’m also fasting for a glucose test in the morning so am probably unable to take anything for the pain.  Why is that?  Having been so kind in the past, are you now going to make up for it?  Will you get worse?  Will you always be here?  You do like to scare people.  Scare me.

Do you fancy some mindfulness?  I think you do.  I think you need some deep, slow, compassionate and kind breaths, deep into the heart of you so that is what you are going to get.  Take care Pain.  I suspect you and may have to become firm friends before I send you on your merry way.  Know this though.  Good friends are soul food.  They’re uplifting, inspiring, funny and kind so if you want to hang around for any length of time, you have to join that club.  There  is no room for draining and negativity here.  Come on then.  Let’s breath together and see what we can discover about ourselves.  You, me and breath.  Right here.  Right now.

Acknowledgements:

Illustrations: Sapphire Weerakone

© 2017 Janine Hayward www.psychingoutcancer.com.  All rights reserved.

Posted in Pain, Psychology for Cancer, Symptoms and Side Effects Tagged with: Breath, Cancer, Compassion, Glucose, Mindfulness, Myeloma, Pain, Psychology