PRATIE PLACE

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Saturday, May 14, 2005

Ha! Blogging from the edge of a hospital bed...

So is this, then "Web TV"? It's not so easy but the fact that it's doable at all is amazing. The nurse call button has a keyboard jack on it and if you push the magic buttons correctly - there you are! I have to squint like crazy to see the tiny letters way up high on the tv but I'm not complaining.

Zed is, though. This morning the beads of sweat were sticking to his face like the torture victims in the movies, and I was doing that Shirley MacLaine scene from "Terms of Endearment" where she goes raging through the halls trying to get enough pain medicine for her daughter. For all the medical advances we're always hearing about, pain management does not seem to be a very exact science.

5 Comments:

At 6:15 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

All the best to your son. Hospitals are awful places, even the best ones, so hope you'll soon be at home

 
At 7:11 AM, Blogger Badaunt said...

Head pain can be very difficult to ease. After an accident I had a few years ago (head injury) I was in severe pain, and the neurologist and I had to experiment with a LOT of different combinations before we found anything that worked even a little. "Head pain is difficult," he told me. "It's the hardest to treat. Very unpredictable. You never know what will work, and sometimes nothing does."

I can't remember the exact combination of what sort-of (but not enough) worked in the end. It was some standard pain medication and muscle-relaxants PLUS tranquilizors during the day or anti-depressants at night. The other way around had no effect at all. If I took it at the right time, then I could get some sleep. (But never enough sleep.)

My sympathies to him. I really do know what it's like when nothing really works. I had a couple of years with no more than a couple of hours sleep at a time, more like ten minutes for the first six months. I've never been so tired in my life, and I NEVER want to go through that again. I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

But muscle relaxants might help. When you have head pain your neck and back stiffen up, and then that makes the head pain worse. I also used tiger oil on my scalp and neck (and face, sometimes) and that helped, too. It stank, but it helped.

 
At 7:12 AM, Blogger Badaunt said...

Just realized - I'm assuming it's head pain because of something you said a while back. If I'm wrong, sorry!

 
At 10:12 AM, Blogger Lora said...

Well, I do hope that he doesn't have to suffer through much more. I'm glad that are finding ways to keep yourself occupied as you sit with him.

 
At 12:17 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

You can get web TV from the nurse call button?! Hope your son is mending well. Who's walking the dog now?

 

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