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[Guest guest]

Wednesday sounds better for me too, am I right that would make it 3:30 pm

Pacific, right?

On pain meds:

Neurontin for neurological pain

Aspirin or Tylenol (pain related to inflamation and slow moving

blood do better with Aspirin)

Codeine - for my coat hanger and other assorted agonies this still

works

Demerol - for pain so bad it triggers thoughts of suicide

Pain levels:

I've given this thought for some years now. Prompted by that stupid

question in ER 'on a scale of 1 - 10 how much pain are you in?' I can't

really answer that, pain is perceived and for each person that is

different. Curious I asked doctors and nurses to tell me what constituted

a 10, just to gauge what my response would have to be to accurately answer

that question. The most often given response was, the pain that comes with

an abcessed tooth. ly, I'd have put that at a 2, if it is pain that

puts me in the hospital is never less than an 8.

So I'd like to find a 1 - 10 scale that most if not all could live with and

gauge our feeling more accurately. Some of us get all the pain relief

while others get only very little. So how do you convey to a nurse or

doctor who has never felt a tooth abcess, appendicitis, labout, severed

limb or broken bone - especially when the source of your agony has no

outward visible cause???

This is what I've come up with so far. Once it is how it should be, I will

print one out on a card to hand to them, so they can more clearly

understand pain.

10 - kill me now, I cannot bear to live one more nanosecond

9 - I am here to keep me from killing myself with the pills I

have at home, the pain is that bad

8 - please just let me loose consciousness

7 - it hurts so much I can no longer think clearly, or act in

a dignified manner

6 - it is constant and nothing I have at hand gives me relief

5 - it comes and goes and nothing I have at hand gives me relief

4 - the pain does not go away and it is scaring me, I am

afraid to sleep because I might not wake up

3 - I could use something to make it more bearable, I am here

because do not know what this is

2 - I could use something to make it more bearable, I am here

because do know what this is

1 - It's bearable but enough to make me come to hospital just

in case

Since at times speech is not what you want/or are able to do, you can point

to, or signal, the number on the list. I can see from the emails just the

last few days that pain issues are dealt with inadequately at best. Being

quiet is no indicator that the person is not in pain, there has to be more

done. We cannot cure a great many illnesses, surely we can ease

suffering. Instead of burning down those poppy fields, why not put those

crops in the hands of physicians and pharmacies so everyone can afford and

have access to pain relief. I worry that researchers hunt more for cures

than for easing the suffering that goes with illness. It's about time a

Nobel prize was again given for easing suffering rather than lucrative

pharmaceuticals, and patents which rightfully only God can lay claim

to. I'd be overjoyed to see researchers come up with a cure for MSA but

not if it means the neglect of patients who already have lost the battle

and suffered more than needed.

I do not understand the reluctance of many doctors to prescribe pain

relief, who will at the same time prescribe other medications which have

questionable track records (Phen-Phen, Meridia, Prozac.) I agree that

patients need to communicate better with their doctors, step one, find a

doctor you click with, then find out if you are both speaking the same

language (can he/she speak plainly, or do you end up going home and looking

it up.) It would also mean that patients need more than ten minutes of

their undivided attention.

aletta mes

vancouver, bc Canada

web: http://aletta.0catch.com

[Guest guest]

No Pacific is 3 hours behind Eastern so that would make it

4:30 PM Pacific (Vancouver & Los Angeles)

5:30 PM Mountain (can't think of who we know in the Mountain time zone)

6:30 PM Central (Dallas)

7:30 PM Eastern (Boston & Washington DC)

8:30 PM Atlantic (Nova Scotia)

alternate chat

> Wednesday sounds better for me too, am I right that would make it 3:30 pm

> Pacific, right?