Pain Management

This is the most important thing after you come out of surgery.  It was described to me in many ways, but the perfect cocktail to make you feel better is the one that stuck with me.  The most important word though is Management.

Manage means to succeed in being able (to do something) despite obstacles. (This really doesn’t help what I’m trying to talk about at all)  My point is that they don’t call it Pain Elimination, there is going to be pain.

Which brings me back to another reason I decided to write this blog; so that all the glory would be given to God? 

I haven’t wanted to force bible verses into the Blog but God has put one on my mind over the last couple of days.  It is Luke 9:23 then he said to them all:  “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me”.

You have to be thinking how this fit into Pain Management, and I really have been asking God that same question but follow me here and let’s see where it leads.  This is a verse I have meditated on many times in the past and every time I have focused on the idea of taking up my cross, what does that mean, what is my cross, how do I take it up.  What I realized is that I am focusing on the wrong part of the verse; the most important part is to follow him. Jesus has already lifted my cross.

When we follow him it will not always be easy, the beginning of that verse requires that we deny ourselves and this is bound to cause immeasurable amount of pain.  It is not if but when will we experience this pain.  The next question is what do we do when we are in the pain? How do we act?

We will get back to that; let’s talk about what it feels like after you donate a kidney.  The one coordinator told me I would feel like I had been hit by a bus.  This was not how it felt at all; it felt like I was stabbed right through the middle of the gut with one of those giant Ninja Swords (it didn’t feel like it was pushed all the way through my body, but just into my gut).

However, that doesn’t really finish it, and then it felt like someone took my insides apart moved everything around and put everything back together, only it didn’t quite fit exactly the same.  To be honest this isn’t all that far from the truth.

I have worked on cell phones for the last 7 years and I have become very good at repairing them.  Over time you learn the where the parts go and are able to take them out and put them all back in, but those first couple of times you try this you always end up with an extra part or screw (I hope they were able to figure out where all my extra parts went, even though I have been told on many occasions I have a screw loose). 

I can’t even imagine how hard this is for the doctors cause here is the catch, when repairing manufactured products they all come off an assembly line and are created the same way, every screw is in the same spot.  Well I don’t have screws, my insides are not exactly the same as someone else’s so every time they do this it is brand new, they do an amazing job, but in my mind sometimes I can see them just saying, close enough squeeze it back in there, as long as we can close it up should be good.  I know that’s not the case (at least I think I do).

The pain is significant, much more than I had prepared myself for (Kate is saying I told you so as she is reading this), the medications controlled it very well but I was very limited.   I did not respond well to oxycodone, it made me nauseous and completely knocked me out so I had them switch me to Vicodin (because I wanted to be like House) to see if it would work better.  It did a much better job of stopping the pain without making me useless, and I have been comfortable ever since.

Now you didn’t think I would forget the bible study at the top did you? I believe the answer is in Romans 5:3-5 “we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”

It is easy to rejoice after we know the results and we are through the pain, however to rejoice while we are in the midst of pain is what Christ has called us to and shows the true character of a disciple of Christ.