Hot hot hot

It has been hot in more ways than one this week. As you know I started using the cream on my feet and also on my shingle pain.  The capsaicin cream is made from cayenne pepper and is supposed to be really hot. I say supposed to be as at the beginning of the week when I first started using it, I never felt anything at all; no heat, nothing! However Monday was a different story, I think it’s because the effects of the Velcade had started to wear off.

Putting the cream on you are supposed to use gloves, at least that’s what one of the instructions say to use, alternatively you can wash the cream and the burning sensation away using vinegar. Well on Monday morning at about 3am I awoke in a lot of pain with my feet burning up. I tried everything to stop the burning. Cold water, washing with anti-bacterial liquid soap, washing with an ordinary bar of soap, washing with vinegar, wiping with Andrex wet toilet tissues/wipes, using sterile wipes. I literally exhausted all idea I had. I ended up taking gabapentin to try an alleviate the pain and watch TV to try and take my mind off it. It eventually eased off, but was still sore during the day. I didn’t put any more on than usual and while I was using it, it seemed to work really well. I even reduced the amount of pain killers I usually take, so I know it does work. I will see how it goes this week from Thursday, to see if the pain comes back again after my Velcade (assuming I get it on Thursday).

I haven’t given up on it, but will try and manage how much and when to apply it. I was using it four times a day, morning, afternoon, early evening and night. I might start using it just in the morning and night and see how it goes. I really want to try and keep using it in the night if it helps me sleep, obviously without the waking up in in pain bit.

Yesterday it was really nice here and the sun was shining. We had a lovely day with Charito’s sister Pilar and her new husband Chris. It was good to see them again after the wedding last week. It was one of my better days as I felt relatively good. It was too hot too sleep though and although I went to bed at about 11:15pm and I felt really tired I just couldn’t sleep and ended up going down stairs again at about 3:30am. I ended up going back to bed at 6:30am, but still couldn’t sleep. The last time I looked at the clock it was 7:30am before being woken up by Charito to get up and go out to the doctors for an appointment at 9:10am (Charito’s appointment now mine for a change).

So although I’m really tired I’m still going to try and stay up so that I can get to sleep tonight, if I don’t I might be in the same situation tonight.