:-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-0 :-0 :-) :-) :-)
OK.....my SMILE is firmly in place while reply to you, dear sweet & understanding anonymous nurse! You stand by your convictions sooooo much that you have plastered your email address and name all over your post so that we mere "junkies" can reply to your idea of adhesions.... :-) I am still smiling....because otherwise I would be very tempted to really scream & shout.............
At Tue, 19 Jun 2001, anonymous wrote:
>
>You wander in day and night, most of you walking on your own, in no
>apparent acute distress.
>You register and wait, telling everyone in the busy waiting area that
>you MUST be seen immediately, "because you hurt so badly."
>You take up valuable space in busy trauma and emergency medicine
>departments complaining of terrible pain in your abdomen, and you tell
>us you must get pain meds for the pain.
>
Well let me start at the beginning of your "enlightened" post :-)...... I have suffered considerable pain due to adhesions, but I do not live in the USA, so thankfully I don't have to put up with your wonderful medical system. BUT let me tell you, I have visited our hospital emergancy departments here in Australia. When I have tried ALL of my usual methods of controlling my pain, I will only then consider going to the hospital. My methods include meditation, relaxation, visualisation as well as hot baths, heat packs, laying in my bed for hours and days at a time. I have taken all my prescribed medication as directed by my physician, including the extra doses I am allowed when my pain is severe. ONLY after all of these things have failed to give me ANY relief do I ask my husband to drive me to the hospital. Sometimes he is at work, so I have to drive MYSELF to the hospital. Thankfully my car is an automatic, so I don't have to worry about using the clutch, just concentrate on the road, the accellerator & the brakes. I probably have a wheat pack across my tummy, and pillows stuffed down either side of the seat, it helps absorb the impact of bumps etc in the road. This does not make it easy to drive! Sometimes I have tears in my eyes as I drive along, sometimes I am able to keep my emotions in check.
I don't have much dignity left after the battery of tests and surgeries I have endured through the years in dealing with my illness. So when I DO visit the hospital I try to be as calm and collected as possible. It is difficult for a doctor who has never met me before to understand what I have endured & I need my whits about me so that I can explain as clearly as possible what I have had as far as recent tests, surgeries etc. I understand the difficulty ER medical people have, when they deal constantly with complete strangers.
>One a pain assessment scale of 1-10, virtually all of you cite between
>an 8 and a ten. But you aren't perspiring, crying, vomiting, bloated,
>or acting like you are acutely ill.
>
MMMMM yes, IF I attend the ER at my local hospital & I am asked to rate my pain, it would be within the 8 - 10 range of the scale.
Let me try and explain it this way, when one lives with pain CONSTANTLY over a number of years, you learn to "live with your pain" to a certain extent, then something will tip the scales, be it extra work, heavy schedule with one's children, or indulge one's self by having mmm lets see, a REAL meal! Sometimes it is purely exhaustion, from putting on a brave face in front of family, friends, work collegues. It can be sleep deprivation due to one's disturbed sleep! This could be due to frequent trips to the loo during the night, or because one rolled over during sleep, activating one's "favourite" pulling pain the cuts like a knife, but doesn't leave us with a bloody cut to show for it!
>Many of you refuse to have x-rays, scans and other diagnostic studies
>because you say "all those tests have been done a million times and they
>are always negative" but you demand pain medication!!
After years of this poking and prodding, sticking with needles, scopes down the throat and up the ....., one tends to get a little distressed at the prospect of another round of tests! It is frustration, it is fear and it is pure pain that we live with day in and day out. Unlike someone who has lost an arm, a leg, sits in a wheel chair or who has obvious outward signs of an affliction, as an adhesions related disorder sufferer, one does not receive the same understanding.
>You tell us you have adhesions but adhesions are nothing more than
>layers of scarring that have no nerve endings. How can this cause pain?
>
:-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)
arggghhhhh dear "anonymous", we get to the BEST part of your post!
Yes, you describe adhesions well......BUT what YOU and MANY others in the medical profession forget is that the ADHESIONS have to have something to stick to.....is THIS NOT SO????????
After my hysterectomy, I was told for over 12 months that I was just feeling post operative pain.....I had two major surgeries in 5 days....of course it was going to take a lot out of my body and I would need considerable rest! HA!
I need to visit my bathroom up to SIX TIMES per night! Why? Well I went to the urologist, I had the bladder strech, I still had the pain & I still could only hold a measly 300 mls! There are OTHERS HERE ON THIS BOARD WHO HAVE FAR LESS CAPACITY THAN THAT!!!! A normal female bladder SHOULD hold about a litre of fluid. Urologist said...oh well you will have to live with it....later you will need reconstructive surgery rah rah rah
All the tests, scans & x-rays revealed NOTHING! Even after my hysto, the x-ray showed no sign of the disaster that was happening inside my body! The CT scan showed a "minor" hurnia....nothing to worry about......so why was I in so much pain? When they opened me up, half of my bowel had pushed it's way through the muscle wall, and the internal stitching was coming apart!!!!! Sorry dear "anonymous" BUT I don't have a lot of faith in scans.
So just two months ago I had yet another surgery! When I woke up my gyno said "no wonder you have been in pain!"
My ovaries were covered....LOST inside adhesions which then attached to my bladder, abdominal wall, vagina & bowel!!! The bowel, was caught in several different places!
I KNOW that I have new adhesions resulting from this last surgery, while I sit here writing to you dear anonymous I have that knife edge pulling pain, I have pain in my pelvic area down to my knees. I have pain up to my rib cage and I will pay the price for sitting at the computer for so long tonight.
Please, dear anonymous let me just organise a little surgery for you........perhaps a few of your own adhesions might help you have a little more compassion & understanding for those who suffer with this mostly invisible disease!
>
>What do you want from us?
>
>Maybe instead of asking for pain medication, you might benefit from
>talking to a therapist who can help you deal with your "pain"?
>
Dear anonymous, we have heard that line just a few times too, interestingly enough, I have attended a pain clinic in Sydney and had a consultation with a proffessor who lectures doctors on treating chronic pain sufferers....mostly in the area of cancer. This professor told me that ADHESIONS pain is just as serious as cancer and other chronic pain. So excuse me if I don't accept your idea of adhesions.
we are not a narcotic dispensing
>department for everyone with indigestion or cramps.
:-) You are absolutely right! You are there to provide treatment and comfort to ALL people who present themselves. Perhaps if your approach and bedside manner didn't come across as non believing (that's the way it feels from your posting)you may have a better result in getting all the information from your patients, including a proper discrition of the pain etc, you might have the opportunity to relieve the suffering we experience on a daily basis.
My name is Joanne Eslick, I'm from Australia, and I am NOT afraid to let everyone know. May you NEVER suffer from our illness, I wouldn't wish it on ANY creature on earth....