Pain

What can I teach about pain. I’m not sure. Certainly I am not suffering more then many others. Maybe stoicism? But maybe not even that. It’s been three years now since I’ve been largely pain free. I’ve come to understand that age may not bring wisdom, but it surely, sooner or later leads to pain.

Ever wonder why old people are impatient and short tempered? Pain. There are all sorts of labels like

sciatica, arthritis, migraine, And many more.

it’s been about three years since I was last pain free. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not constantly in agony. But it is sometimes tricky to find a way through the day without something hurting.

A couple of stories. I needed to get a couple of wisdom teeth removed, I actually still had all four intact. So one came out without much problem and then another one broke. It didn’t seem to be much of a problem but it turned out to be something called a dry socket. For a normal extraction a regular pain reliever will do the trick.But a dry socket is excruciatingly painful.

So I called the dental office and they said more ibuprofen. It was like putting out a blaze with an eye dropper. This was one of only a few times in my life that pain made me scream and moan. I even tried the on call doc at my gp’s office. They’ve made it impossible to get pain relief. They’re all too worried about getting attacked. It’s all just impossible. I couldn’t sleep. I needed a strong opiate and was denied. After two weeks I started to feel a bit better. Now after four weeks the pain is actually gone.

Then last Saturday Parkinson’s caused me to take a really hard fall. My watch called emergency services. By a miracle I was actually seen after about three hours, nothing broken. Thankfully the er doc and I agreed on a med, A relatively mild opioid tramedole. I should have asked for ten,I’m not seeing my gp until tomorrow, but mostly getting by ok.

But something has to change. People need to have reasonable expectations when it comes to pain relief and we need to find a way for doctors to prescribe pain relief like opioids when required without risking their medical license. I sure wish I knew the answer.