How do you judge how much pain you are in?

The doctors keep asking Husband, on a scale of 1 to 10 (where 10 is the WORST), where does your pain fit? Actually, how do you answer that question? It is so difficult to really figure out what "level" your pain is. I mean, how bad is BAD? What is bad right now, could actually end up being relatively tolerable compared to the pain you may be suffering one month from now. Very confusing lah.

The long and the short of that rant above is that Husband is experiencing more pain - not so much in the spine or in the nerves, but an upper body ACHE! Ribs, shoulders, shoulder blades, just below the shoulder blades along the sides at the back, etc. Obviously not nerve pain, or else the Neurontin would handle that, and it takes a fairly large dose of liquid morphine to even "touch" that pain and dial it back a bit. Gave Husband 20ml of liquid morphine at 6am, and another 15ml at 9.15am before the pain started to recede. This is in addition to his daily pain killers and pain patches! So, being a bit worried, I got the hospice doctor in again. After a lot of questions, poking around, checking current medication levels, etc, the recommendation was to increase his oxycontin dosage by 20mg each - ie, instead of 60mg twice a day, it will now be 80mg twice a day. So, let's see how that goes.

We had the piano guy in today, as Husband's lovely electronic baby grand (the Yamaha GranTouch) has got a few non-working keys. Turns out the internal sensor is gone and has to be completely replaced. Kinda like replacing a mother board in a computer. Going to cost a bit, but still a lot cheaper than buying a new piano!! Mind you, it is going to take them three weeks to get the part in from Japan, so till then Husband will have to put up with his "semi-silent" piano :-D.

I have also re-started my fitness sessions, and, as always, my trainer comes up with a whole load of new exercises that cause a whole lot of aches and pains and reminders of muscles that I never knew I had! One thing for sure is that you cannot get bored with his fitness routines because each time you go it is something new.

I had my dear friend, Mercy J, coming to visit yesterday, which was great, as we had time to sit and talk and catch up... and, of course, eat too much! She is the one who, last Sat evening, brought her hairdresser over so that Husband could have his hair cut without having to leave home! Such a God-send she is!!!!!

That's it for now folks. Please continue to keep Husband in your thoughts and prayers - that he should gain strength, get an appetite(!), gain energy, and have some QUALITY of life. Right now... he has very LITTLE "quality" in his life, as he is just too weak and frail :-(, so, please keep him in your prayers.

Till next time, stay safe, stay HEALTHY!