On or about 11-25-05 07:50, WAYNE CHIRNSIDE did engage JAMES BRADLEY

 -> Sure, extreme physical pain 24x7, 365 will kill us, but there are some
 -> *amazing* and phenomenal safeguards in place that keep us
 -> functioning. If you desire to be medicated, I'd make sure you know
 -> what the other side of that sword holds.

 ->  WC> Used to be a M.D. G.P. could just prescribe.
 ->  WC> Now you need a MRI, see an orthopedic surgeon and then go
 ->  WC> to a pain management clinic to get relief.

 -> Been there...

 WC> Me too.

It's rather sad really. I fully understood that the profession had to be
sceptical, but little did my unassuming nature predict the row ahead to hoe.

 WC> Was a narcotics addict at age 8 without knowing what narcotics were.

YOWZA! OTC narcs. Snake oil - the lot of them? I think it's clear, Eucinasia
 and easily digestible soup is the only things that can deal with colds.

 WC> Severe repiratory problems I was prescribed hydrocodone ( alcohol
 WC> and codeine) Chericol -C with codeine cough syrup and hycodan
 WC> a synthetic codeine.

 WC> But that was prescribed by a general practitioner long before the war
 WC> on drugs and anyway I wasn't expected to live for much of ten years.
 WC> Thought I was insane coming off all that crud when my health improved
 WC> as no-one told me about addiction or withdrawal.

I asked a nurse if there was a pamphlet. 

 WC> Kicked it all cold at 15.

We do more before Five am... {-|[

 ->  WC> I can't even afford the co-pays for all this.

 ->  WC> OTOH an aquaintance of mine went to the emergency room 11
 ->  WC> times last year for prescription drug overdoses!

 ->  WC> The 12th time he went straight to the morgue.

 -> Haven't done that. Frankly, I wonder why I'm still standing. /-:

 WC> I tried to talk him into sanity, no-one home :-(

When *it hits the fan, sometimes there is no accounting for the will of the
subject. I think that is one prediction the best science can't figure.

 ->  WC> An out and out drug addict not welcome in my home for years he had no
 ->  WC> trouble at all getting all the prescription narcotics he wanted.
 ->  WC> [...] ->  WC> found he'd died Dec. 25, 2004.

 WC> I underwent spinal surgery and upon awaking never once touched the
 WC> morphine pump button for the I.V. in my arm.

I believe the last thing the anestician  does, is load you up for the
first night. At midnight after my second surgery, I wasn't able to fall asleep,
so I hobbled up to the desk for some placebos. We both knew they were placebos,
but I had to ask twice if this was going to affect my abilities for a clear
head.

I think it was two weeks later, I had a *it load of hauling to do, where the
T3's weren't keeping up to me. I didn't notice the detox when I dropped those,
but I likely wasn't that used to the dosage, and being young and healthy enough
to breeze through it...

Seven years later, I couldn't understand why I was falling asleep on the job,
and unable to walk the the car once finished. 

 ->  WC> I'd be grateful for the pills he took in two days for an entire
 ->  WC> year's time span.

 -> I'm afraid I have to disagree with you here Wayne.

 -> No questioning your need for relief, but the relief can be hard to
 -> live without. My first dose, I was in tears *without* the pain. From
 -> then, I thought I couldn't live without it.

 WC> I'd take them with extreme discretion, like when grocery shopping.

Again, I'm trying not to live in a glass house, but I'd rather approach it
straight. But that's just me. Like you, I don't want to punch that IV button,
for fear it starts punchin' back.

I also know the desperation of protracted pain.

 -> I suspect you are practised in Eastern arts of mediation, and
 -> relaxation?

 WC> Nope.

Owe... Mang! The best tools there is! This spring, I mentioned I was in the
yard more days than I was recovering from it. That hasn't happened for me in
almost fifteen years. I had a brief spurt of vigour once they started me on the
Hydromorphone, but I was so busy doing the essentials, that nothing really got
done around the house.

I'll try to describe my go-to acupressure points:

Both hands, palms away from face, tuck the thumbs into the palms, like you
shouldn't do when making a fist. With the knuckles closest to the wrists, press
both into the socket of the eye, right at the bridge of the nose. You can press
really hard on these points, as any physiology I know of, will limit the amount
of pressure you can exert on the eyeball itself.

For detoxing, even for a flue, the web of the hand between the thumb and fist
finger is really great. I used to attach a huge spring clamp to mine, *before*
I was taught about how it assists the liver. 

Where are the pamphlets when you need them? 


 WC> I'm practicing limiting my motion to limit the mind numbing pain.
 WC> Doing fairly well just at the moment.

That's all great, but I suppose you and I are creatures of motion, not
creatures of rest. 

 WC> Perhaps some scar tissue has built up between my discs
 WC> as the surgeon who did the discectomy suggested relieving some
 WC> pressure on the nerves?
 WC> Who knows, feels better anyway.

Wow... Good for you! They didn't fuse you, then?

 WC> For now the arthritis is giving me a break too, it's
 WC> like winning the lottery!

(-;

I mentioned to George in my previous message about Vietnamese soup. When the
hands just wouldn't grasp another thing, it was off to the noodle house I went.
A day or two of repairs, and recovery, and I was off busting a nut again.


 WC> When Jeff much to my surprise went to the U.S. Veteran's Hospital
 WC> and admitted the full range of narcotics he was taking I
 WC> was astonished they prescribed him morphine sulfate.

I think the latest studies say cold turkey is the worst way.

 WC> The idea of course was he'd stop taking all the rest of
 WC> the drugs and just go with the one potent pain killer.

 WC> Of course Jeff kept up the whole range of drugs plus the morphine.
 WC> I knew his days were numbered then.
 WC> He surprised me by lasting near two more years.

 WC> Talk about your stupid doctors.

Again, I'd beg to differ. For you and I, maybe delirium tremors is what works
best, but not your 'average' citizen.  




... James
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