Humbled

Right when I was considering writing another one of my BS entries complaining about this or that, blah, blah, blah, my dad sent me a link to a blog of a man he works with keeps.  The home page tells his story.  I was so moved and humbled, I felt I had to share it here.

Here's the link:

http://tomnichols.webs.com/

This man was in a dynamite explosion accident as a teenager; in the end one of his legs was amputated just below the knee.  The story he tells on his home page is not too graphic, but he has a photo gallery that might be for only those who find that kind of thing interesting.  He seems to have a great sense of humor because he has another photo gallery devoted solely to pirate cartoons.

What really got to me was that 30 years ago in Rupert, Idaho, pain control was not that advanced.  He describes getting shots of morphine, but now there are far more effective pain killers and it would be standard procedure to flush them through an IV or provide the patient with a drug pump where they can press the button and every 10 minutes they get a dosage of whatever medication (typically morphine, dilaudid) is in it.  I think it is the disparity in care I received/receive for my pain and what he received is what really got to me about his story.

When I awoke from my surgery all I could do was wimpier about the incision/surgical pain and it took a long time to get it under control.  I was getting shot after shot of Demerol flushed through my IV (which, if done too quickly makes the IV site all hot and achy).

But what care!  I was given IV medications, sent home after taking oral pain medications, and was written scripts to get even more medications.

Once again I have perspective.  This week I think I finally fixed the patient records issue with the University of Utah Pain Clinic (turns out the issue was some over-zealous employee was just cleaning house).  And instead of feeling like I can't catch a break and I have no end of hardships, I just feel grateful.  Grateful for modern approaches to pain management and grateful for the opportunity (Medicare) to receive it.