Tuesday, October 23, 2007

what to do?

I've spoke about this woman before. She is a great lady who was dealt a terrible hand.

It is bad enough that her father put her down, demeaned her, cursed her and actually put a gun to her head, but then she had to spend a year taking care of him as he died of cancer.

But physically, for many reasons, many of them unknown,some probably stress related, and for many years, she has been a mess. Her digestive system constantly turns things into liquid, at one end or the other. She has terrible osteo-arthritis; her back, hips and knees are crumbling. She had one knee replaced and the anesthetic didn't hold and she woke up during the operation. Six months later she had a heart-attack. They put stents into her and her arteries tightened and crushed the stents. She can barely walk, hardly breathe, and not eat much.

Then, from all the medicine her kidneys failed. They took her to the hospital and got everything going as well as the could.

They they sent her home and won't give her any pain-killers. They tell her, probably correctly, that her kidney's can't process them any more. So now, she sees me and can hardly move because the pain in so many areas is so great.

She wants me to talk to her doctors and tell them to give her some pain medicine. They won't do it because of the liability (who would hold them responsible?) They tell me to teach her to hypnotize herself.

She thought that was really funny.

4 comments:

Amanda said...

But the same people would not hesitate to put a dog out of his misery.

Jamie said...

Would a pain patch have to be processed the same way? It seems so unfair...but then, so many things are...there has to be a way to help this poor woman. I know you will if you can.

Amanda said...

I'm still pissed.

Is there no doc with a sense of honor among them? There must be one who's a bit less of a sissy than the others. Maybe she/her family can sign some some paper that absolves him of "liability."

If nothing else... can't someone drive the poor woman to Canada?

Anonymous said...

Living with severe physical and/or emotional pain is no way to live!
Aside from suggesting that she start growing her own meds, I think she should find a compassionate advocate who would bring her plight to the attention of the powers that be, while exploring pain management alternatives available in a big city like yours...