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Pain, it's not just for poetry anymore
I’m writing this, albeit very slowly, with one hand, my left hand to be exact. Luckily there’s spell and grammar checking available so you need not suffer my stumbling.
I had surgery on my right shoulder on Friday, September 26th, 2008 to repair a SLAP tear and remove a bone spur. There might have been more done as a local anesthetic was planned for the whole thing and I ended up with a general.
Anyone who’s had a general anesthetic knows that feeling of rawness in the throat when you wake. Many people, I am told, recover from anesthetic slowly and experience some grogginess. Me, I come out of anesthetics exactly as I wake up, like someone flipped a switch.
So, when I woke up and knew there’d been a general administered I figured something may have been added but, with the US medical system being what it is, I’ve no idea what, if anything, was added to the schedule. You see, my surgeon had another surgery following mine and mine ran long so all I received when I woke up was excellent care from the recovery room personnel and a single sheet of paper with generic information and two notes:
1) No shower or dressing change for three (3) days2) Make a follow-up appointment in 10-14 days
And that’s it.
Oh, wait, I was left with a prescription for Vicodin - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicodin.
Since I have an irrational fear of narcotics, this was worse than useless.
I completely understand that some folks find the occasional use of narcotics in response to pain both necessary and therapeutic. I do not. Narcotics scare the hell out of me. I’ve never been addicted to anything, I’ve never even done drugs but I’ve got a brother who died at 17 through drug involvement and another who’s pissed away his life in pursuit of his next high so I’ve made the decision that pain is temporary and addiction is not an option.
Someday I may experience pain so intense and lingering that I have to turn to narcotics. Thus far, through 2nd and 3rd degree burns and partial de-gloving, through knee surgery, through root canals, and now shoulder surgery I can happily report; not yet.But I have learned one very important thing. The medical profession does not want to hear that you may not want narcotics. Each time I am prescribed them I explain my tolerance of pain and my irrational fear of narcotics and each time they tell me I am mistaken and this time, really, really this time, I will absolutely require them.
Yeah, right.
I’ll stick with my Naproxen Sodium. If it ever actually fails me, at less than $10 for 300 pills, maybe I’ll consider something stronger. Until then pain, and narcotics, can kiss my ass.
I had surgery on my right shoulder on Friday, September 26th, 2008 to repair a SLAP tear and remove a bone spur. There might have been more done as a local anesthetic was planned for the whole thing and I ended up with a general.
Anyone who’s had a general anesthetic knows that feeling of rawness in the throat when you wake. Many people, I am told, recover from anesthetic slowly and experience some grogginess. Me, I come out of anesthetics exactly as I wake up, like someone flipped a switch.
So, when I woke up and knew there’d been a general administered I figured something may have been added but, with the US medical system being what it is, I’ve no idea what, if anything, was added to the schedule. You see, my surgeon had another surgery following mine and mine ran long so all I received when I woke up was excellent care from the recovery room personnel and a single sheet of paper with generic information and two notes:
1) No shower or dressing change for three (3) days2) Make a follow-up appointment in 10-14 days
And that’s it.
Oh, wait, I was left with a prescription for Vicodin - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicodin.
Since I have an irrational fear of narcotics, this was worse than useless.
I completely understand that some folks find the occasional use of narcotics in response to pain both necessary and therapeutic. I do not. Narcotics scare the hell out of me. I’ve never been addicted to anything, I’ve never even done drugs but I’ve got a brother who died at 17 through drug involvement and another who’s pissed away his life in pursuit of his next high so I’ve made the decision that pain is temporary and addiction is not an option.
Someday I may experience pain so intense and lingering that I have to turn to narcotics. Thus far, through 2nd and 3rd degree burns and partial de-gloving, through knee surgery, through root canals, and now shoulder surgery I can happily report; not yet.But I have learned one very important thing. The medical profession does not want to hear that you may not want narcotics. Each time I am prescribed them I explain my tolerance of pain and my irrational fear of narcotics and each time they tell me I am mistaken and this time, really, really this time, I will absolutely require them.
Yeah, right.
I’ll stick with my Naproxen Sodium. If it ever actually fails me, at less than $10 for 300 pills, maybe I’ll consider something stronger. Until then pain, and narcotics, can kiss my ass.