Hi everyone, I hope all of you are doing well. I’ve recently started my journey to recovery from Hodgkin’s lymphoma, for which I was diagnosed a few weeks ago, and have been finding the information and support on this website / community extremely helpful. The diagnosis came as a bit of a shock, but I’ve done my research and am optimistic that I will make a full recovery.
I’ve been experiencing some unexplainable pain in my left wrist over the last few days, and was wondering if I could get any help or opinions as to what it could be.
I’ve completed the first of 4 to 6 sessions of ABVD chemotherapy, and thankfully I had no immediate side effects, except a very painful left wrist which started on day 6. I’ve provided some additional information below, and was wondering if any of you have an opinion on what it may be? Note that the chemo was administered via a cannula, initially in my left forearm, and then moved to my right forearm due to a blockage.
Location: It tends to radiate from just above the joint between my left hand and arm, more towards the hand. It is on the back side of my hand. I.e., not the palm side. It feels like it’s coming from the bones.
Nature: The pain tends to really flare up when I am lying down. I hardly notice it during the day, but as soon as I get into bed for the night it flares up and is preventing me from sleeping. Sometimes I dose off due to exhaustion, but end up waking up after about 30-60 minutes feeling like my hand is about to explode. Shaking / massaging / stretching it and standing up and moving around a bit eases the pain, but as soon as I lie back down and my hand is motionless, it flares up again. Also, being in contact with a heat source, like a heat pack or hot water when I’m showering tends to aggravate it and it flares up.
Appearance and feel: There is zero swelling, or discolouration. The look, feel and temperature is exactly the same as my right hand.
Actions: I called the Macmillan hotline on day 7, and they suggested taking ibuprofen, paracetamol and ibuprofen gel, all of which didn’t help at all. On day 8 they told me to go to A&E to have it checked, in case it was gout or tumour lysis syndrome TLS). They did a blood test and x-rays, but everything checked out as normal, including uric acid (which was low at 180) and LDH. A&E discharged me with some codeine, and they were reasonably confident that it wasn’t gout or TLS, but they had no idea what the cause was.
Current status: I’ve discovered that sleeping on my back with my head propped up tends to dampen the pain enough for me to get a substantial amount of sleep. The codeine is somewhat effective, but only for an hour at most. If I change my sleeping position to my side or belly then the pain comes rushing back quite rapidly regardless of whether I’ve had codeine or not. The pain is almost unnoticeable during the day – I.e., when I’m sitting or standing.
My next chemo session is scheduled for Friday, and I’ve got a routine blood test and consultation tomorrow. I’m not counting on getting any concrete information about the source of the pain, so was wondering if any of you had any opinions or theories?
Thank you so much, and I look forward to hearing from you. And apologies for the long post 
Rus
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