Category Archives for Pain Medication

Everyone Is Faking It

I talk a lot about the fog my pain medications create around my brain and how difficult it can sometimes be to remember or find words to express myself. But my pain medications have also had an oddly positive effect on my awareness of the world around me. I seem to be getting better at seeing people. By seeing I don’t mean I don’t have to wear my glasses. I mean I can see into them: their vulnerabilities, their resistance and their fears. I’ve joked to a close friend that when I get better I might have to figure out a way to continue getting refills for these brightly coloured perception pills.

It’s been happening like this. Every day I watch – but mostly listen to – the people in my life faking feelings they don’t have or suppressing the ones they do have. They feign love for their spouses or significant others when all things about that person makes them cringe or often deliberate disengaging from committed life. They pretend to get excited by work that leaves them dangling partially comatose on wobbly swivel desk chairs. They groan about dragging their asses out of bed in dim morning light to care for children they never wanted. They engage in carnal play to avoid mind numbing conversations about where to take the next vacation or what colour to paint the front hall while visualizing distant objects of desire. And worst of all, some are trapped living a life lie because to live freely as who they truly are would see them disavowed from their bloodlines.

They fake their way through whatever ‘it’ is to fool anyone looking to closely into believing they are happy. It seems that the longer my illness hangs around the deeper I’m able to see into people. It’s as if they feel safe being vulnerable with me because I’m in a weakened physical state. Perhaps they think my mind is so scrambled by the pain medications I can’t or won’t remember their hesitations before they assume a perfectly light-hearted tone or the way their voices trail off without completely answering a question about the supposed important things or people in their lives. It’s possible they think I don’t recognize the longing in the too long pauses. Or maybe it’s just a relief for them not to have to pretend with someone just for a moment and they hope it goes unnoticed.

Whatever the reason, they are faking it. At first I thought it was me. That I was being too sensitive and looking for things that aren’t really there. But the more I listen the more I hear the discontent and longing for something, someone or someplace different; and I want to tell them all to run. Run fast. Run far. Run to that other existence they believe they can have.

But I know that’s not fair or the right thing to do. I don’t have the right to tell anyone to run away from the thing(s) making them unhappy. Especially when I can’t guarantee they will find better things or any happiness at all.

Besides it would be hypocritical of me to tell anyone to stop faking anything when I walk around trying to fake not feeling pain.

 

Freddie Mercury – The Great Pretender

Recall of Toradol Pain Medication

There is currently a voluntary recall of the pain medication I have grown to rely on – Toradol (ketorolac tromethamine) – when I go to the emergency room to get a bit of relief when I can no longer bear a pain flare up. Toradol only helps me when I get it by IV or direct injection combined with an opiate pain medication. And for me ‘help’ means it gets my pain back to what I now characterize as ‘normal’ levels, or on a general pain measurement scale down to about a four.

If you have never heard of it before, Toradol is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID). It is used for the short-term treatment of moderate to severe pain. It works by reducing the production of hormones that cause inflammation. This helps to decrease swelling, pain, or fever. Unfortunately for me, the pill form does very little to reduce my pain but causes me significant stomach irritation so a trip to the emergency room to get an IV drip of Toradol has become my proxy happy place.

If you rely on Toradol injection for pain relief I hope this recall does not affect you. That being said, here’s the press release that was posted by the FDA

Hospira, Inc., (NYSE: HSP) has announced a voluntary recall of ketorolac tromethamine injection, USP in the United States and Singapore due to potential particulate. The presence of particulate has been confirmed through a customer report of visible, floating particulate identified in glass fliptop vials. The particulate was identified as calcium-ketorolac crystals. Multiple lots are impacted by this recall; refer to the addendum for product list and lot information.

…lots were distributed from February 2013 to December 2014 in the United States and from January 2014 to July 2014 in Singapore. Hospira has not received reports of any adverse events associated with this issue for these lots to date. Hospira has initiated an investigation to determine the root cause and corrective and preventive actions.

Anyone with an existing inventory of the recalled lots should stop use and distribution, and quarantine the product immediately. This recall is being carried out to the medical facility/retail level. Customers who have further distributed the recalled product should notify any accounts or additional locations which may have received the recalled product and instruct them if they have redistributed the product to notify their accounts, locations or facilities to the medical facility/retail level. Hospira has notified its direct customers via a recall letter and is arranging for impacted product to be returned to Stericycle in the United States. For additional assistance, call Stericycle at 1-888-345-4680 between the hours of 8am to 5pm ET, Monday through Friday. Customers outside the United States should work with their local Hospira offices to return the product per the local recall notification

Read the complete release: http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/ucm433857.htm

 

Lisa Fischer – How Can I Ease The Pain – Music Video (1991)