Well, I arrived. It has been a sucky trip, my grandma is dying and I am here to help make sure she is comfortable before she goes because I was her favorite, and also because taking care of her needs to be a family affair and I am the only one that can bring the family together and lead the effort to look after her health. It would be unfair of me to say that I am the one doing all the work and that is just untrue; what is true is that my family is very fragmented and I am the only one that can communicate with everyone and disseminate accurate information in a pragmatic matter and get feedback so new ideas can be communicated throughout the family so consensus can be achieved to solve the issues at hand.
To be honest, communicating with my family is kind of like communicating with others in Korea. In spite of the excited hand gesturing and vocal intonations, I have to filter out the important words to get a clue as to what the heck my family is talking about so I know how to react. Then there is the fact checking... Which involves going to the other rational beings in the family that are in the know to get there version so I can draw my own conclusions and make a rational decision and take care of what needs to be done. The sad truth is that the communications concerning my grandma touched 5 people before it got to me and covered three states in the US and my location in Korea. Like in most communications, nobody wants hearse so once I figured out the path of communications I traced it backwards and went right to the origin and worked my way along the path until I got to the fourth person, my sibling, who has a propensity to be extremely melodramatic to the point of irrationality. This is the point where I leap frog the fourth person and go to the fifth person in the chain, granny's daughter, and tell her what I was able to put together from my communications. Person five communicates to person four and relays the information I gathered.
Things have been going quite well though, it is effort, but they are going well. We were able to figure out that my family is sensitive to morphine. Once I looked at granny today, who was going two steps backwards from Sunday, it just dawned on me that her movements and expressions looked familiar. Then it dawned on me that she is on morphine for pain and the familiar twitching and writhing is the same movements I made when I broke my leg in the South Pacific and was given morphine. A few phone calls later and we discovered that there are four members in the family that have had a bad reaction like this to morphine. Since my experience was the most recent, and because I have had medical training and have treated myself in remote areas of the world for things most people have to go to the doctor for, I was able to recall on my training and offer the suggestion of using [*]pethidine, a wonderful option that I was given in lieu of morphine.
Pethidine is a wonderful option for killing pain. My experience with it when I broke my leg was awesome by comparison to the limited amount of morphine I was given before I had the bad reaction. While on it I had no real discomfort, awesome dreams, and found myself in a happy place in spite of the circumstances. It is the least thing we can do for granny; with her organs systematically shutting down, she deserves to go in a happy place. Hopefully pethidine will do just that. I should know the results tomorrow, if we see any positive progress it will be a relief.
Thanks for reading and allowing me to vent just a bit. Honestly, I am looking forward to going back home. The 70F weather is nice, but spring finally hit in Korea and the weather is creeping into the 60'sF so that will be fine with me.
To be honest, communicating with my family is kind of like communicating with others in Korea. In spite of the excited hand gesturing and vocal intonations, I have to filter out the important words to get a clue as to what the heck my family is talking about so I know how to react. Then there is the fact checking... Which involves going to the other rational beings in the family that are in the know to get there version so I can draw my own conclusions and make a rational decision and take care of what needs to be done. The sad truth is that the communications concerning my grandma touched 5 people before it got to me and covered three states in the US and my location in Korea. Like in most communications, nobody wants hearse so once I figured out the path of communications I traced it backwards and went right to the origin and worked my way along the path until I got to the fourth person, my sibling, who has a propensity to be extremely melodramatic to the point of irrationality. This is the point where I leap frog the fourth person and go to the fifth person in the chain, granny's daughter, and tell her what I was able to put together from my communications. Person five communicates to person four and relays the information I gathered.
Things have been going quite well though, it is effort, but they are going well. We were able to figure out that my family is sensitive to morphine. Once I looked at granny today, who was going two steps backwards from Sunday, it just dawned on me that her movements and expressions looked familiar. Then it dawned on me that she is on morphine for pain and the familiar twitching and writhing is the same movements I made when I broke my leg in the South Pacific and was given morphine. A few phone calls later and we discovered that there are four members in the family that have had a bad reaction like this to morphine. Since my experience was the most recent, and because I have had medical training and have treated myself in remote areas of the world for things most people have to go to the doctor for, I was able to recall on my training and offer the suggestion of using [*]pethidine, a wonderful option that I was given in lieu of morphine.
Pethidine is a wonderful option for killing pain. My experience with it when I broke my leg was awesome by comparison to the limited amount of morphine I was given before I had the bad reaction. While on it I had no real discomfort, awesome dreams, and found myself in a happy place in spite of the circumstances. It is the least thing we can do for granny; with her organs systematically shutting down, she deserves to go in a happy place. Hopefully pethidine will do just that. I should know the results tomorrow, if we see any positive progress it will be a relief.
Thanks for reading and allowing me to vent just a bit. Honestly, I am looking forward to going back home. The 70F weather is nice, but spring finally hit in Korea and the weather is creeping into the 60'sF so that will be fine with me.
[*] DISCLAIMER: Please note that I am not a medical practitioner and don't have the right to demand the change in drug treatment options, but it is a well known fact that the side effects of morphine are common. My recommendation to the doctors is in effort to insure her comfort. It is up to granny's doctors and health care staff to be aware that there is known history in the family of an adverse reaction to morphine and filter the suggestion given and pursue an alternative course of treatment that will achieve the desired results for the current circumstance. If Pethidine is the best suitable option that will not cause further contraindication then so be it, BUT, if it will cause further contraindication then it is up to her doctors and health care staff to find suitable alternative options that will achieve the desired results.
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