July 16th — One of the reasons my oncologist scanned my bones last week was because I’d been having ribcage and back pain, especially when lying down to sleep. Fortunately, my bones were clear of cancer but the bad news is that my discomfort is a drug-related side effect. I can’t really stop the medicine Tamoxifen because it has a good track record of preventing cancer recurrence. In the past when I had trouble sleeping I would take a Tylenol PM. However, that over-the-counter drug has an ingredient that reacts negatively with my Tamoxifen, reducing its cancer-fighting properties. Yesterday, I asked the oncology nurse practitioner for something to help me sleep. She said that regular prescription sleeping aids don’t help with pain relief so gave me Darvacet instead. When I commented to a friend that prescription sleeping medications have a high risk of dependence, she reminded me that instead of a sleeping pill, I now have a narcotic pain reliever. I’m not sure addiction is high on the list of worries oncologists have when prescribing medicine to their patients. As Greg says, once you’re diagnosed with cancer, you can get just about any prescription you want. It’s truly amazing the wide assortment of controlled substances in our medicine cabinet. So, now my catch-22 is that it’s 4:20 in the morning. If I take something now to relieve my pain and help me sleep it will probably make me a zombie for most of Saturday. If I don’t, I’ll be a zombie due to lack of sleep. At least I’m not up at night worrying my discomfort is cancer.