I'm a nurse and have worked with many patients who have pain that is sometimes very difficult to control. For most of my career, I have practiced in oncology or orthopedic settings where the doctors are aware that it may take much stronger pain medications (usually narcotics) than the patients would otherwise require, and they prescribe them. Because the majority of pain is caused by some external or internal stimulus causing nerves to send messages to the brain so that the individual is able to remove that stimulus (e.g. remove the nail you’ve just stepped on, from your foot), and take an analgesic if needed. However, not every ache that a person feels can be easily traced to a particular cause, which can result in patients being under-medicated, over-medicated, overlooked, defined as “drug seekers”, hysterical, hypochondriacs, or simply given up as a lost cause.
As a person who has experienced both types of pain, and having a daughter, who...
[More]
Tags:
chronic, pain, stories
Posted at: 05:17 PM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
