Timelies all!

Happy Birthday Jesse and Theodosia!

Florida was nice. Warm weather, way too much food and I slept a good amount. Got to see Laura and her DH and had a good time, even if the plans got totally changed.

I'm so sorry Brenda that you and your mother had to go through this. How horrible and frustrating for all involved.

I've not personally had to deal with any real chronic pain in my life. Loved ones have been in pain and it is such a feeling of helplessness to not be able to help. Low or high pain tolerance doesn’t really matter when the person is in pain.

There seems to be so much more research on pain management, and yet too many people I care about are suffering.

There's reason to hope that real-time MRIs and cat scans will be able to quantize pain levels, which will lead to more effective treatments, not to mention if a patient can point to a chart that shows they're experiencing an '8 on 10 scale' pain, the medical personnel won't have much wiggle room to tell them to shake it off.

I'm in a fair amount of chronic pain much of the time -- which I'd characterize as enough pain that aspirin and other NSAIDs can't beat it back. It kind of greys out all the color from your life, you know? I've gotten a lot more empathetic than I ever was before, though, because I know for sure I was underestimating how much guts it takes to go through life with migraines or serious asthma or in fact a whole long list of physical ailings.

Xposty with about 6 people!

Hi Sheryl. So nice to see you and G again. A welcome break from all the hustle and bustle in my life.

And we have a cold front! Opened the windows to enjoy, but it might get cold enough to have to close them. Woo!

I don't want to go back to work ever again.

Hey Sue! I totally agree re: the work thing. I'm sure I'll e-mail you tomorrow. Maybe we could have lunk?

Would you think ill of me if I said I can't wait for my FIL to go home?

I'm sure I'll e-mail you tomorrow. Maybe we could have lunk?

Yay!

Would you think ill of me if I said I can't wait for my FIL to go home?

Isn't that part of being an in-law?

Exactly, Connie.

A big part of the problem is that so little of the actual research on pain trickles down to the individual level - or rather, when it does, it goes up against hard seated preconceptions about drugs. And current Federal drug policy, putting doctors at potential risk, just makes it worse. A minor for instance - one of the studies my mom was involved in was with people using IV morphine.

When patients had control of their own meds, at a push of a button they could administer more morphine, they would add more whenever they felt pain. Which sounds like a scenario for abuse, right? But what actually happened was that because they were able to address the pain at onset, their actual use of meds dropped substantially, while their estimation of their pain management and comfort rose.

The injection of morality into pain - which kind of takes us back to where we started - is so key. When people can just do what they need to to control their pain, it works. When they feel like asking for painkillers is immoral or weak in some way - or when they have to confront doctors or nurses who seem to feel that way, and who have the added distortion of draconian and illogical laws influencing them - people ironically need more drugs for less relief. It's so fucked up.

When patients had control of their own meds, at a push of a button they could administer more morphine, they would add more whenever they felt pain. Which sounds like a scenario for abuse, right? But what actually happened was that because they were able to address the pain at onset, their actual use of meds dropped substantially, while their estimation of their pain management and comfort rose.

There was just something on NPR today about rats being less stressed by electrical shock when they thought they were controlling how strong that shock would be.

Timelies,

Happy Birthday to both Jessie and Theodosia.

90% of the department was out today but the phones weren't any quieter than normal.

I have to say this was the most tiring Christmas ever. Not because anything bad happened, it was just long. Was up way too late Friday and Saturday night (3am) due to having my brother and some friends over and then had to be up early on Christmas Eve. Was ready to pass out by 9pm on Christmas Eve, but my brother was out with my cousin and had promised to be back before 11. So I forced myself to stay up. 11:15 rolls around and I call his cell to discover he had lost track of time and he would crash at my cousin's so I could go to bed.

Got up too early Christmas morning for more family stuff, then had to leave my family stuff early to make a 2 hour drive out to GF's family thing. Stayed there a few hours and make a 2 hour drive home. For once in my life I'm glad I'm on this stupid schedule, because it means I have tomorrow off. I need a day to unwind. Also need to replenish my liquor supply because brother and friends put a serious dent in what I had stocked up for New Year's. Oy. I love my brother, but I've never been so glad to have my apartment back as I am this year.

Isn't that part of being an in-law?

Oh yeah. *shakes head*