I Don’t Generally Take Pain Killers
I have taken pain killers rarely in my life, but only when I get serious pain.
But since the cataract operation, I have felt a bit of light pain in my left eye.
So I’ve resorted to taking three of these large pain-killers.
Usually, I dunk them in cup of tea.
I’ve always liked ginger and they have been my favourite biscuits since I was about six.
I also used to see a Jamaican nurse in a former GP practice for my B12 injections and she was fulsome in her praise for the spice and what it can do.
Dr. Google also finds evidence that they help.
However, who cares, so long as I think they work.
My Cataract Operation
It was all very simple and painless.
After the procedures, where they checked that they had the right patient and that everything else was in order, after some local anaesthetic was put in my left eye, I just laid on my back with my head in a rest.
A cloth shield was put over my face and my right eye and my left eye, from which the cataract would be removed was left looking through a hole in the shield.
I was asked to focus on a bright light and I held it there for what must have been about ten minutes.
I held my head and eye still and I felt nothing.
Then the shield was removed, I was told it was all over and I was led out of the operating theatre.
I was in no pain and the only difference in my appearance was the shield taped over my left eye.
How many people hold off their cataract operation because they think it will be painful?
I left the hospital within two-and-a-half hours of my arrival at nine o’clock this morning.
It is now over twelve hours since the operation and I can honestly say, I have had no serious pain. Although for some reason my right eye has developed an itch in sympathy.
Conclusion
If you are told you need a cataract operation, get it done sooner rather than later.
Prioritising Patients
Homerton hospital is hoping to remove my gallstones on Thursday by endoscopy, so it’s just a fairly small procedure.
I do wonder if there is a shortage of nurses, doctors and other staff at the hospital caused by either the Covids or the fuel crisis, if some operations will be cancelled.
At no time, in the diagnostic process was I asked if I was in pain. Which I am not!
Surely, in the Age of Covid-19, where there is great uncertainty about predicting hospital capacity just a few weeks in the future, I should have been asked a few questions, so that urgent cases could be given priority if necessary.
As they must have been there for a few months causing me no trouble, surely a few extra weeks won’t make much difference to me.
The Only Pain Killer I Ever Use
My teeth and mouth are a bit painful tonight, so I’ve resorted to the only pain killer, I’ve ever found effective.
The Only Pain Killer I Ever Use
I’ve always found it so and I suspect, it is able to deal very well with the muck that seems to run into my mouth.
But after all, so many million Scots can’t be wrong! Can they? Although they probably think my habit of diluting it with London tapwater, is a bit Philistine!
On the other hand there’s a serious article from Time magazine here. This is the first paragraph.
Whiskey is one of the cheapest and best painkillers known to man.” So reported Dr. Harold George Wolff of Cornell last week to the Association of American Physicians meeting at Atlantic City. Earlier doctors, he said, prescribed whiskey freely but were finally forced to discard it for “moral and ethical considerations.
The report is dated May 19th, 1941. The only problem is that they weren’t talking about Scotch whisky, but bourbon.
Got A Migraine, Have Sex!
Research from the the University of Munster in Germany has shown that sex may be a better cure for migraine than painkillers. It’s all here in Her Majesty’s Daily Telegraph.
I wonder what Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells thinks of this?
Incidentally, I used to get the odd migraine, until I was diagnosed as a coeliac and went gluten-free.
Paracetamol Deaths Fall
According to this article on the BBC, smaller pack sizes for paracetamol has led to fewer deaths, many of which are suicides.. However the number of suicides on the railways continues to grow to such a level, that special measures had to be taken.
And yesterday, it would appear that someone jumped off the roof of Eastfield. Accident? I doubt it!
The trouble with suicides, is that we try to stop them, by limiting the methods, when it would be better to stop the reasons people feel they might take their own life.
As to pain-killers, I rarely take them! A couple of years ago, I did have some severe pain after the stroke and had to resort to paracetamol, codeine and later amitriptyline. But I haven’t had a pain-killer since late 2010, although I may have had a small glass of the Scottish all-purpose remedy.
Painkillers Can Make Headaches Worse
This has been said on the television this morning. There’s more here.
I used to suffer from bad migraines brought on by flashing lights and exercise, but since being diagnosed as a coeliac and going on a gluten-free diet, I don’t get them any more.
I haven’t taken a painkiller since C died, except when I was suffering two years ago from bad pain in my face due to a tooth and when I had the tooth out.
If I have a slight pain, I use a measure of Scottish falling down liquid, diluted with London tap water.
Good Riddance To That Tooth
I broke the tooth many years ago and a couple of dentists had tried to fill it, but it always caused me a certain amount of pain. I don’t remember how I broke it, but I think it might have been on a bread roll in a Michelin-starred restaurant in Italy. The only person, who could know is C, and she has been gone for over four years now.
After the stroke it got painful and no matter what I did, it was giving me pain. Since the stroke it seemed to have got worse and I often thought it smelt of something like rotten fish. It will be three weeks tomorrow, since I had the tooth finally removed in the Royal London.
Since then, I’ve been to dentists twice to have a look at it and one gave me some antibiotics. A few days or so a small piece of tooth came through the gum.
Yeserday though, another piece came out and it was about the size of a child’s front tooth. The gum bled a bit, but by the time I got to bed and after a whisky, it was OK.
I also slept very well and long and woke without any tooth pain. And that means also none in the left hand side of my face for the first time in a year.
Strangely, my left hand seems to be working better in the typing.
It’ll be interesting to see what my dentist says, when he reviews it all on Wednesday.
My only regret is that I’d had it out a year ago. Or even earlier.
The Scottish Toothache Cure
Since my tooth was taken out, I have been in quite a bit of pain. Today it is a lot better, as a splinter of the tooth has just appeared in my mouth. It probably sneaked out through the gum, by the side of another tooth.
I can’t take Ibuprofen and paracetamol has helped, but the only thing that has really dulled the pain has been a small Scotch and water. My father was the same and preferred it to any pain killer. But then if the eminent Hugh Pennington recommends it, it must be right.
Hope For Pain Sufferers
Whilst in the university, I picked up a copy of their Research Intelligence newsletter.
It fell open on an article about how Dr. Goebel at the University, has developed a new way to combat chronic pain. It is described here.
The Anonymous Widower 