By Susan Callaway, RN
Do you ever go to a doctor and ask him/her if you are hungry? Do you usually ask a politician if he/she thinks you need a laxative or a new bottle of hot sauce? Do you think you should need a prescription for coffee and buy it from a pharmacy – a cup at a time, of course?
Didn’t think so.
All those things are subjective, and most things in our daily life are subjective. Only you know when you are hungry, and what you might enjoy having to eat or drink. Only you know your body, your schedule and budget. Just think of the difference between supper at home, a meal in a nice restaurant, and what you would get as a hospital patient. At least for now, only the latter is dictated by government regulations and someone else’s idea of what is good for you. You have no control of the time or place, and only a superficial “choice” among pretty much equally unappetizing offerings.
OK, so let’s relate this to pain.
Do you wait for the doctor or, God forbid, a politician to tell you about your pain? Do you need someone else to describe the location, intensity or the nature of your pain? How in the world would anyone else know? Why would their judgment of how you feel be more valid than your own assessment?
There are several different kinds of pain, to be sure, and not all require or respond to the same treatment, but a great deal of the pain most of us experience is pretty straight forward. If we fall down, we have bruises and maybe some scrapes. If we are careless in the kitchen, we can have burns and cuts. The potential for minor accidents and the consequences of occasional periods of stupidity would fill a book. Most of that can be handled with soap and water, band aids, rest and the passage of a little time.
More serious injury and surgery produces more serious pain and other symptoms, which are not at all unrelated. If you’ve ever had major surgery (or injury), I’ll bet you remember vividly the first time you were able to have a normal bowel movement, and how much better you felt afterwards. The narcotic analgesia given in these situations causes a disruption in a number of other body systems and functions, some of them very significant and some fairly subtle. Some can be measured, monitored and treated by others, and some cannot. Only you know if you are nauseated, have no appetite or feel dizzy. Being “stoic” and not sharing these things can bring on more problems. Even worse, if your caregivers ignore your message, or make light of it, you’ll be less apt to confide in them and you will be the one to suffer.
Only YOU know how you feel. Every professional needs to listen to your description of your pain and other symptoms, how and where you feel it, as well as how you see it affecting all of your body and well being. This is the part that is neglected or even rejected all too often – and all too often even by the patients and families themselves because they’ve been convinced that the doctor knows best.
All of this becomes even more important when the pain is very bad, as in some forms of terminal cancer and various neurological conditions. Chronic pain, with no clear cause and which responds poorly or not at all to treatments, is such a vast subject I could write a book on it. I’ve suffered such chronic pain for 53 years now, and studied pain management intensely as a nurse, so it’s something I understand very well.
And then, not at all the least of them, is psychological pain, whether it is combined with physical pain or not. The idea that such pain is “all in your head,” and therefore irrelevant or unworthy of treatment, is one of the greater failings of modern medicine and, maybe surprising to some, a terrible failure of psychiatry itself. Treating pain and suffering as some kind of “mental illness” without actually doing anything to relieve the pain is truly crazy. And treating the “mentally ill” with drugs that just further scramble their brains and body systems is included in my definition of insane.
There are numerous substances, herbs, plants, even chemical “drugs,” which can treat pain. Some are more successful than others, and the effectiveness is very often a matter of context. The environment, both physical and emotional, is probably as important as the source of the pain and the treatment chosen, but are usually the least considered by caregivers and health care professionals outside of hospice.
Finding an appropriate person to assist you in choosing the most effective substance, herb, or treatment of any kind is important, and that is the only proper role for the health care professional in the long run. They understand (or should) the various kinds pain, and know how to ask the right questions so you can give them that information. They will need a fairly complete medical history in order to spot potential problems with any given treatment. The doctor or other professional needs to inform you and/or your advocates of each potential treatment, their benefits and risks, so you can decide among them. You need to be free to change your mind about treatment or who you trust with it at any time.
And if you decide to find “medicine” without assistance from professionals, then you take on all of those risks and accept the consequences, many probably completely unknown. But it is your life and your body. Only you ultimately have the authority to control your own body and health.
How does this compare to the “health care” you’ve encountered? How does it compare to what we can so clearly see in the near future? You might give some thought to just why that is so frightening. Think about total government control of your health care, your pain, and – increasingly – your appetite and food choice. Think about why anyone assumes that the “president,” or any other politician or bureaucrat, has any legitimate authority over your life, your choices, your subjective feelings and needs.
And then picture yourself going to a politician to ask permission to take aspirin or eat an apple. It could happen.
Next we’ll explore a little of the world of “addiction” and “drug abuse.”
Libertarian Commentary on the News, #14-08D: Stupidity
By Nathan Barton
Good morning, all, and aren’t politics wonderful? So entertaining, so exciting, and much proof of the old saw that “God must love stupid people, since He made so many of them.”
Seriously, are there STILL people who think the GOP is fundamentally different from the Democratic Party in 2014? What else can explain that top GOP leaders want to sic the IRS on the Tea Party movement? Unlike the Democrats, both the squatters at 1600 Pennsy and under the Iron Dome, who were careful to make sure that the IRS is NEVER used to put political pressure on their opponents, the GOP is so worried about the collapse of their party (as pointed out by none other than good old Uncle Joe) that they have taken off the gloves and are prepared to get down and dirty with their own rebellious party members. Can Gitmo for tea-partiers be far behind, now that the place has been emptied as the “messiah” promised? Of course, this isn’t just at the national level: we can see it at the state level in places like Colorado and South Dakota – and even Wyoming. There are many, MANY good Republicans who have to wake up to the fact that the GOP is NOT conservative and NOT “Preserving Liberty” or “Preserving Freedom” but just in it for the same power and control that the Democratic Party is.
Closely related to politician’s stupidity is, of course, the stupidity endemic in the mainstream media. John Lott over at JPFO has another wonderful column about ABC’s recent “misleading” gun death reports about children. I suppose that “misleading” is being tactful and polite, but lying like a rug would be more accurate. John points out that in 2010, while only 36 children under age 10 died from gunshots (or gun-related accidents, whatever that means), 54 were poisoned, 262 died from fire, 609 drowned, 923 died in car crashes, and 1070 suffocated: 81 *** EIGHTY-ONE*** died in some other accidental way for every one that died because of a gun. Doesn’t stop the stupid folks on the formerly little screen, but I suspect (given the glorious growth of big-screen TVs) that more children under age 10 died from having a TV fall on them or electrocute them, than from guns.
Traffic safety devices are ubiquitous, and they perform a very important function: getting drivers and their vehicles safely through construction zones and areas of damaged roads. However, a company has found a new way to use traffic barrels: those orange and reflective white plastic devices designed to be safely bumped and hit, unlike the metal barrels they replaced. These iCones track the speed of traffic (YOUR speed) through their zone and report the speed and location to an uplink that can be viewed anywhere via the internet. It seems to be only a matter of time before they offer cameras to record license plates and driver’s faces and also upload those. Software already exists to read and sort and link license plates, so that you could begin tracking vehicles (and with face recognition, people) anywhere on the nation’s highways. And you thought the NSA was intrusive NOW?
The “messiah” proclaims ‘Unchecked’ carbon pollution before 2009 had ‘Severe impacts on our weather’, except of course since 1997, since when there has been NO global warming. NONE in 17 years, even though carbon pollution (mostly China and the Third World) has continued to climb. Liar!!! BTW, is the “our weather” him speaking as royalty?
Ukraine violence comes after contrasting messages from U.S. and Russia. Violence, which according to some reports is getting more and more intense. Of course, small nations normally get crushed between bigger ones, and anyone, much less a whole nation or society, which believes anything coming from Moscow or DC, is being very foolish. Look what happened to Israel and Judah caught between Egypt and Assyria, or Maryland between the North and South. Or the Koreas. More reason to leave defense in the hands of volunteer local militia and (within limits) voluntarily contracted “professional” organizations. And out of the hands of governments.
A new study again reports that the lowest beer taxes are in Wyoming, and the lowest wine are in Louisiana, and the lowest spirits tax is found in Wyoming and New Hampshire. I do not drink any of this, so I have no dog in the fight – except that I do. Theft from a neighbor, a friend, or a fellow member of my community is STILL THEFT. That money collected in alcohol taxes MIGHT (in a very tiny way) deter someone from drinking, or drinking as much, but it won’t really do that much to curb drunkenness or reduce alcoholism or even DUI/DWI. And it facilitates and supports the parasites. Still, this information is very interesting: Wyoming beats out New Hampshire (naaah, you Free State porcupine souses!!), and if I’m not mistaken, Wyoming is on the bottom end of the nation as far as total government budgets and people at the state and local level. But Louisiana? No, Cajun culture or the French Quarter just don’t make much sense – and a love of wine doesn’t translate into low taxes on wine: look at France itself, or Quebec. If anyone has suggestions, let me know.
Mama’s Note: You said: “Wyoming is on the bottom end of the nation as far as total government budgets and people at the state and local level.” Sorry, but that is not at all true. Individuals don’t pay a lot of taxes here, but we have more government employees and spending, at all levels, per capita than almost any other state. Coal, oil and other mineral producers pay the bulk of the taxes, which funds entirely too much “government.” Wyoming does not spend nearly as much as most other states on public housing and other welfare items.
D.C.-area bishops: No government has the authority to alter the design of marriage, a fact with which I heartily agree, even though they are Roman Catholics. My question is where oh where are the other 10,000 or so non-Catholic preachers and evangelists and the like in Virginia? Or the million or so nationwide? Have they become so lily-livered that they will not stand up for what they (once) believe(d) was right? They are as stupid as the government goons and the Tranzis forcing this down the throats of the rest of us.
Mama’s Note: Nobody has the authority to dictate the terms of any human interaction or contracts at all. Nobody can define “marriage” for other people either. If those involved in a voluntary organization wish to define these things for their own members, those who don’t agree can leave and/or form their own organization. No religion or church can legitimately dictate to non voluntary others what constitutes “marriage” any more than can the state.