It’s alarming to find myself at the end of February / beginning of March, with two months of this year already past, and myself still feeling so incapacitated. I had expected to be up and running, more or less fully functioning again (though still able to say I have to take it easy, if I felt like it). Instead, February has disappeared in a fog of pain and inability to do very much at all, sometimes even walk without the aid of walking poles, or hobbling around the house levering myself around the furniture.
It started on 31 January, when I woke up with a pain in my groin, which felt as if I had just pulled a muscle or tendon in the night. However, it went on for several days; at that time walking was still possible, but getting in and out of bed was uncomfortable, rather like when you have lower back pain. When I went to the hospital for my post-operation check-up, the consultant examined me to make sure I didn’t have a hernia (apparently I didn’t, but I didn’t think I had), and said this pain was the kind of thing that might occur any time for two or three months after a prostatectomy. And “Just keep taking the paracetamol.”
A week into The Pain, when it felt much more as if it was in the whole lower abdomen, I phoned my GP to see if she had any bright ideas. She recommended taking ibuprofen as well as the paracetamol, and said she could prescribe a stronger form of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory if I wanted. I said I’d leave it for the time being and get back to her if I changed my mind. I carried on trying to keep up a normal routine as much as possible, but at the end of the second week I phoned the GP again to get the stronger painkiller (Naproxen) and omeprazole to protect my stomach from bleeding.
The painkillers didn’t seem to do very much — there was no sense that the pain got better after taking them, and then gradually got worse again as the time for the next dose drew near. The day after starting the naproxen we thought it would be nice to go into Oxford for lunch. This was the first time I went out with my two walking poles in the hope they would help me walk more easily. They did; but most days I didn’t feel much like going out at all, and sat a lot at home, hoping that wasn’t making things worse, but not really being able to do anything else anyway.
In the meantime (because I had thought that by February I would be getting better) I had agreed to take a few Sunday services and other commitments. Mostly I managed these, but after the last one I was in so much pain I could barely hobble around the house, dragging myself about by holding onto the furniture and the walls. Luckily it’s a small house, so a wall is never far away.
The following day I phoned the GP again. This time he was of the opinion that something more was going on, than just a post-operative healing complication. He asked me to let them have a urine sample, to test for a urinary infection. “But surely a UTI couldn’t cause this much pain to the whole groin region, and make it so hard to even walk?” Apparently it can; and by now I was getting some of the other, more familiar, symptoms of a UTI — which I hadn’t had before — needing to pee much more often (up to 5 or 6 times a night) and not producing very much when I did. It’s a funny thing to be pinning your hopes on having a urinary infection, because at least that can be treated with antibiotics, and if it is the cause of all the pain, you might actually start to feel better.
So now it’s the end of Week 4, and I’ve been told my test results have reached the practice, and probably show I do have an infection, but they haven’t yet been checked by a doctor, and my request for a call today doesn’t seem to be possible. So another night and probably day of pain lie ahead, especially as our local pharmacy is also woefully understaffed, and even if they get the prescription tomorrow, they may not be able to dispense it till Saturday.
And that’s what happened to February…
Postscript: My GP is a star! She phoned at 7.40 p.m., when I imagined she would have long finished work (and indeed, as the father-in-law of a GP, think she jolly well should have) to tell me she’s written a prescription for antibiotics and it will be ready to collect at reception in the morning. I’m hoping collecting it and taking it to the pharmacy in person may get it dispensed quicker than her sending it electronically.
Godspelled 