Morphine for myeloma bone pain

When my GP told me I had multiple myeloma my pain relief was increased to morphine. The pain I was suffering was myeloma bone pain; multiple lesions, rib fractures and compressed vertebrae.
I took liquid morphine starting at 5mls every 6 hours. It was soon apparent this was inadequate so I increased the dosage to 10mls and reduced the time interval to 4 hours to give me much better pain relief. For five days I recorded every dosage and time for my GP to determine the dosage of a morphine slow release capsule.
On Tuesday 5th June 2001 I changed from liquid morphine to a slow release morphine capsule. It was Kapanol 20, the 20 being 20 mg. Kapanol 20 was effective for 12 hours so I took one pill on awaking and another 12 hours later. Kapanol was complimented with panadol.
Liquid morphine was still available for any break through pain. Initially I took some liquid morphine at the same time as the morning Kapanol to help me get going pain free.
Liquid morphine had a sweet taste to me, a bit like apple cider, was rapid acting, pain relief was felt after 2 minutes and was effective for 4 hours.
Side effects for me were dry mouth and minor constipation. The dry mouth was overcome by drinking liquid during the day. At night I slept with a drink bottle close by to sip and moisten my mouth. My lips became dry as well so I used a lip balm, my introduction to regular use of “lippy”. Myra claimed the dry mouth along with sleeping on my back caused me to snore, I never heard it. Constipation was manageable with Kiwifruit (Kiwigold, it’s sweeter) but became worse when I was on VAD.
At the end of August 2001, 3 months after starting morphine, I no longer required liquid morphine so reduced the Kapanol 20 to Kapanol 10. That was at the end of my second VAD cycle. I was still taking panadol.
For two evenings after the reduction I experienced restless legs while trying to sleep a classic morphine withdrawal symptom.
On 15th November 2001 I stopped the Kapanol completely. Restless legs were again experienced for 2 evenings and my bowels were loose for 2 days.

Glossary.
Morphine: A drug extracted from opium used in medicine as an anaesthetic and sedative.