If you think that morphine solves that, you have had the very good fortune to never experience severe pain. I’ve watched my father bellow in pain for hours while he was on several times the maximum recommended dose of every pain medication a hospital could provide.
We are very bad at controlling severe pain; any belief to the contrary is simply mythology believed by people who have never been there (I have as well, and I can assure you this is true).
My father was in severe pain, every day, for the last decade or so of his life. It happens to be the case that he wouldn’t have chosen suicide were it offered, but what if he had wanted to choose that? WTF is wrong with our culture that a person in such a situation cannot get help? He certainly couldn’t handle it himself; he could barely walk, and many days couldn’t function at all. RomeoStevens is quite correct here.
I’ve seen claims that doctors know how to control pain, and no evidence that it’s true in general. (One of my friends has severe neuropathy from no known cause, and heavy duty meds, electrical stimulation, and I forgot what other medical methods have been tried leave her barely able to walk.)
I would like to have a method of recognizing it when someone makes a comforting generalization (“it will get done soon” is a small scale example) to check for evidence. There’s a temptation to accept the comfort too fast.
Another angle on doctors and pain control is that you don’t always know where to find competent help. A friend who had a major cancer and was picky about being able to think clearly didn’t get decent pain control until he was in a hospice.
Some people find that having access to suicide makes a hard life easier to endure.
If you think that morphine solves that, you have had the very good fortune to never experience severe pain. I’ve watched my father bellow in pain for hours while he was on several times the maximum recommended dose of every pain medication a hospital could provide.
We are very bad at controlling severe pain; any belief to the contrary is simply mythology believed by people who have never been there (I have as well, and I can assure you this is true).
My father was in severe pain, every day, for the last decade or so of his life. It happens to be the case that he wouldn’t have chosen suicide were it offered, but what if he had wanted to choose that? WTF is wrong with our culture that a person in such a situation cannot get help? He certainly couldn’t handle it himself; he could barely walk, and many days couldn’t function at all. RomeoStevens is quite correct here.
I’ve seen claims that doctors know how to control pain, and no evidence that it’s true in general. (One of my friends has severe neuropathy from no known cause, and heavy duty meds, electrical stimulation, and I forgot what other medical methods have been tried leave her barely able to walk.)
I would like to have a method of recognizing it when someone makes a comforting generalization (“it will get done soon” is a small scale example) to check for evidence. There’s a temptation to accept the comfort too fast.
Another angle on doctors and pain control is that you don’t always know where to find competent help. A friend who had a major cancer and was picky about being able to think clearly didn’t get decent pain control until he was in a hospice.
Some people find that having access to suicide makes a hard life easier to endure.