A very dear concern.

[talula]

This is a note from Gemm.

Hello Everyone,

My name is Lilac, and I am a member of the Archive. I am also a very good friend of Christina's. I know alot of you know and respect her. Well what i'm am writing about is just a little concern of mine about my daughter. I know this post is a little different from most, But I was just looking for a few incouraging thoughts from some friendly people. I have met a few of Christina's friends in the chat.Which I do like very much by the way. But anyway, back to my concern. My daughter is 27yrs, and she is kinda hooked on pain pills. She takes them for the bad pain in her feet. She has already had 3 minor accidents, Which she is ok.She is a very kind person and I love her dearly. She also has a daughter who is 9yrs. So yes I am a grandmother. LOL Well if anyone has any good advice I would appreciate it so very much. Thankyou so much, Lilac (very shy at first) LOL

Dear Lilac

I am a chronic pain sufferer and would like to say that you are not in the position to say your daughter is doing wrong by taking pain medication. I have had two back surgeries and was told that my back is so bad that further operations would only make things worse and have found this to be a very true statement by the neuro surgeon who did the surgeries of me.

The bigest test before having surgery to correct spinal problems is, can you control the pain with drugs or not. As long as drugs will work, their is no need for surgery. The information that you have presented to us on the board says that "a doctor supplies drugs to help with the pain in her feet". This says that the doctor feels that the pain is real and can be controled by medication. Surgery wether it be for the foot, because of bone spuring in the feet or from the back, which would be refered pain to the feet from disk impingement or from bone spuring there.

I myself have had several surgeries and have spent a lot of time in the hospital. I do have a morphine pump in my body that puts morphine into the grey matter of my spine 24/7, and take a very high dosage of morphine to help control the pain, because my pain becomes more intense as I become more active daily.

My feelings are that your daughter should be believed by you, and that you should support her in her time of pain, and if needed you should help her to see a doctor that can properly diagnose the cause of the pain, which probably has been done, i.e. xrays have been taken of her spine and feet to determine the source of the pain. And if the pain is controled with Vicoden or other drugs simular drugs that nothing should be done to her back. Now if it is bone spuring to the foot, then that can be cured by surgery or an injection to the foot to disolve the spurring.

I feel your support for your daughter in her time of pain is most needed, as pain meds will not harm a person who is in real pain, because the pain itself can cause more problems than the medication, as the medication is only needed to control pain. Medication does not cause a good feeling in your body, as it is only relieving the pain.

There should be a Pain Clinic close to you that also specializes in chronic pain and knows how to control it and the amount of pain reliever needed or another treatment that would work.

Do not dispair because there is a lot of help for your daughter, and the pain is real to her and she needs help, not worry from taking drugs to control pain until the problem can be cured.

I hope all goes well

Gemm

[talula]

From talula.

I am the care-giver of Gemm and he really knows what he is talking about when it comes to pain management. This comes from years of experience in just that; being in pain and working to overcome it. There have been some wretched nights when I know he wants to cry but he is in so much pain, the tears can't form.

Not to belittle anyone, I have had some spine issues which could not be controlled by drugs and had to cured by surgery.

My fellow workers were amazed at how one person can lean back at about a 30 degree angle, scream and shout as they walked up steps, only to give them the report they had asked for. When the doctors offered surgery everyone in the office applauded because there is just so much us mortals can take and they knew there were some serious problems.

Plus I was tired of driving from the center console. It was the only way I could drive and even then it was torture. Sitting down in the drivers seat was impossible.

Pain will make you do some things that you have never thought of before my friends. At the actual surgical theatre I walked into the operating room because it would have been too painful to do otherwise. The staff promised I would not have to lay down on the operating table until they were ready to administer general anethesia. They were true to their word, but as mentioned before, pain will make you do things you never imagined. I'm sure I was very impolite to everyone during that time. Please forgive me.

Minus part of a backbone disk, I am no longer in that deperate pain. My hip bothers me quite a bit and my left leg is somewhat numb, but I will give that up to exchange the pain. It is a wonderful trade. Perhaps there will be problems later but I can think again, and no longer have the gear stick up my anus (thinking was a difficult thing at that time, so was using the bathroom, laying down in bed, cooking, just being a human).

Listen to Gemm. He knows his stuff.

P.S. A funny side note to my surgery:

When I woke up and was being wheeled into the room that would be my housing, Gemm was there, albeit he was having great issues standing and ready to fall down. I don't remember if he called Bboy or if Bboy called but I spoke to Bboy reasuring him I was ok and still alive while looking up from my bed at the amazing flowers that the hospital had managed to grow from the ceiling. And the butterflys. Look at the butterflys..

Then came the mother from hell. My hospital roomate was wheeled in and his mother being a Maury Povich fan (and hard of hearing) turned on the rooms only television to an episode in which Maury was genetically testing folks for thier parenthood. Men and women screaming obsenities at each other while children cried loudly. Nothing better to make a person just out of surgery feel better than screaming and crying.

I ended up getting up out of bed and walking down the hallway with an I.V. pump attached to me for hours until the I.V. pump broke and no one could fix it so they took the line out of me and sent me home. The attending nurse simply could not understand why I could not rest with a television going in the middle of the night and them taking blood tests every hour, thus had to walk about demanding cigarrettes and coffee and as you can imagine I don't want them in 15 mins. Right now is satisfactory.

Another side note:

Recovering from back surgery in which they removed part of my backbone, moved my spinal cord to the side then removed part of a disk was far, far, far faster then recovery from castration. I was back at my job in a week after back surgery, the castration took much longer.

tal

[Robby (imported)]

From talula.

Recovering from back surgery in which they removed part of my backbone, moved my spinal cord to the side then removed part of a disk was far, far, far faster then recovery from castration. I was back at my job in a week after back surgery, the castration took much longer.

tal

Now I know what is wrong with you...You have no backbone!

The doctors forgot to put it back at the end of the surgery...

Love ya,

Robby