Wrapping Up Chronic Pain 2000
© Artsy Grampa
Although I have only been writing at Suite 101 since September, I have already had the pleasure of touching many lives with my articles through the The Chronic Back Pain Series which take up much of 2001, and will be an intensive exploration in learning the structure of the back and understanding the functions our muscles, joints, ligaments, and all facets of the human anatomy have to do with our experience of chronic pain.
I think it's important for each of us to do an inventory once a year on the things we have accomplished in each of our roles; to see what has remained the same, and what has changed. For me, an eighth member of my family has been added to Chronic Pain: My Experience. My grandson, Damien was diagnosed with Childhood Nephrotic Syndrome and spurred me to explore that article as well as Chronic Pain in Children: What To Look For. He has begun to respond to treatment, but it has taken a surgical implant of a broviac in his chest for regular albumin infusions and more medicines on a daily basis than most individuals will take in their lifetime. My grandson's experience of chronic pain has perhaps affected me even more than any other I have encountered. I cannot imagine what it must be like to be two years old, just learning to communicate and being traumatized by needles, hospitalizations, strangers in white coats, and being hooked to wires. Even more baffling and disturbing are the hallucinations he has which cause him to unknowingly perform violent self-injurious behaviors as a side effect of his medication which he must take or lose his kidneys. No wonder he screams so often in night terrors.
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