About fours year ago I was prescribed pain-patches to help control my pain-levels, especially my spinal pain. Whilst never totally pain-free, the patches have massively reduced what I was suffering and reduced spinal pain to just occasional twinges.
So I have ten to eleven (the latter is my back so carer-support needed) locations around my body where I can place the patches - on a hirsute person like myself it is not easy to find skin without too much hair! Constantly revolving the spots where the patches are placed is to prevent skin issues.
Since puberty I have been reäcting to sticking-plasters and even micropore-tape. A couple of years back I incurred a burn from a certain pain-patch manufacturer’s adhesive. I notified my supportive G.P. and my friendly pharmacist. From then on, that brand has not been prescribed to me, barring one mistake by a trainee pharmacist after which I incurred a second burn.
Unfortunately, over Christmas-time, it has not mattered where on my body I place the patches (and I use patches from two different manufacturers) I have been burned every week. These wounds are extremely sore and difficult to appease. I started using burn/scald-cream and that really helped ease the severe discomfort and also helped the burns heal faster than without.
After chatting with my housemate who works in Pharma, I decided to immediately stop using the pain-patches, to give my skin a rest. These past few days have been quite unpleasant as I go through withdrawal-symptoms and incur a huge concomitant increase in pain.
My heavy-duty pain-killer is not generally prescribed by G.P.s, but in my case, because I only take as a last resort, my G.P. was and is willing to prescribe. Normally I take on average less than a tablet per week. At the moment I am taking them whenever the dosage time-span is up. I had quite forgotten how much pain I used to be in on a quotidian basis. At least I am now reminded how effective the pain-patch medication has been and indeed is.
I am thankful today for scientists, research-assistants, statisticians, folk who sign on to drug-trials, drug-manufacturers, truck-drivers, doctors & nurses, pharmacists, my housemate (who collects my prescriptions as they cannae be delivered due to “controlled drugs” status), and the carers who remind and help me change the pain-patches. We are so inter-related and inter-connected in our civilisation: no man is an island! I AM thankful.
No comments:
Post a Comment