I know of someone who didnt get proper pain relief for chronic pain until they shot themselves in the chest trying to commit suicide.
I can identify with that person, Dovey.
Recently I broke a tooth & went to the dentist today. Told me it'll cost $2000 to replace it.
Ka-ching!
....I mean, ouch!
It costs money ta be middle aged, yanno.
Guess I'd better fork over lest I end up like yer friend in a couple of years writhing in pain from a future toothache.
Oh well.
This is wasnt a "friend"......he was a patient.
This man got shot in Afganistan, and I'm not kidding you....his body was full of fragments. His CT scan looked like a confetti bomb went off in his body. I didnt even know that could happen to a person. It was unbelievable. They were EVERYWHERE. Legs. Arms. All in his body. All these bright white spots all over(as seen in a CT....like a confetti bomb went off inside him)
So he chronic and severe pain....just bad all over body pain. And all they were giving him? 5mg Vicodin. Are. You. Kidding?
And I get it....addiction is viscious. I know that my addiction started with painful medical issues....so I'm not ignorant about it can start. But really, Joe I cant and wont blame ANYONE but myself. I was at a bad point in my life, one of my closest friends had suddenly died, I was in the middle of a stressful break up, and I noticed taking an extra pain pill made all my bad feelings go away. It also made me more socail, more talkative, and gave me a huge euphoric energy boost. All my ptsd symptom just went away and I felt awesome. So I GET it. I do.
But this poor man....he wasnt just wanting to be high. He was SUFFERING. And it got to the point where he didnt want to live anymore because he was in constant agony. His quality of life was in the toilet. He got tired and he shot himself in the CHEST.
His neighbor heard the gunshot and was on it, his life was miraculously saved. He missed every vital organ.. .it really is a miracle he didnt die. It went right through him JUST missing everything in his chest and went clean through his back without even nicking a lung. Total freak incident....but clearly God wanted this man alive.
So when he was in the hospital recovering, he was finally getting enough pain relief and obviously he was working with mental health....he was finally able to get the long term pain management that he had needed. But its fucked up that he had to blast his chest with a shot gun to get taken seriously.
Obviously this was all before I ever met him. When I met him, he was recovering from a surgery involving some of the fragments he has in his body from the war. They are just in there....moving around....and sometimes they remove "problematic" ones in surgeries. They cannot get all of them though.....there are A LOT. So until they shift into a bad place, his doctors just leave them.
And yes he does get infections a few times a year. What led to the surgery that saw him on my floor was sepsis.
I think about this guy everytime the topic of pain meds and addiction comes up. There are so many genuinely suffering people paying the price because of bad choices made by people like me. And it really sucks, and we need a better way of taking care of ALL patients, EVEN the ones with addiction disorders.
