“The people who are my support,” said Alan Madison, “also upset me most. My partner, when I came home from work early, gave that look of, ‘Oh God, he’s sick, he’s probably dying.’ ” Their caregivers’ worry about them occasionally seems to be a request for reassurance, as though they want the sick person to say, “No, I’m not sick at all. Nothing to worry about.” When people are tired and not feeling well and a little worried themselves, reassuring others is trying. Steven’s caregiver is his cousin: “My cousin gets too doting. She gives me her entire schedule and wants to know mine. But I can’t feel accountable to her—we’re both full grown—in spite of her good intentions.” People with HIV infection are extremely aware that they are affecting the lives of their caregivers. They worry that they are causing trouble and suffering, and they feel responsible for that. Perhaps they also occasionally feel some guilt for inflicting trouble on their caregivers. As a result, people with HIV infection protect their caregivers. Sometimes they keep worrisome information to themselves, or they minimize symptoms and pains. They say they don’t want to make the caregivers’ burdens any heavier. They worry that the caregivers will burn out and be unable to help them in times of urgent need. They also worry that no one is caring for the caregivers: “My cousin hasn’t had an easy life,” says Steven. “She lost her father, and now she’s losing me. She’s having a hard time and somebody should be watching out for her.” People with HIV infection are sometimes bothered by reassuring caregivers because they want not to be reminded of sickness, but to concentrate on getting well. Too often, what the caregiver expresses as sympathy sounds to the receiver like pity. The sick person sometimes hears the caregiver saying, “It must be awful to be you.” “That kind of sympathy,” says Steven, “makes me very uneasy.”
*81\191\2*
Archive for June, 2011
Whether caused by a gunshot, a fall from a balcony, a car or motorcycle accident, or a dive into a shallow pool of water a spinal cord injury requires immediate emergency medical assistance. Care must be taken at the scene of the accident to preserve the integrity of the spinal cord. This means that the injured person should be moved only by a professional who is trained in the proper protocol. Stabilizing the neck and transferring the patient onto a backboard – a flat board or stretcher-are usually the first steps taken by the emergency medical technicians. The backboard is placed securely into an emergency vehicle, and a swift journey to a trauma center or hospital follows. Sometimes helicopters do the transporting. On reaching the hospital, the injured person is rapidly transferred to the Emergency Room (ER). Time is of the essence.Franklin remembers bits and pieces of his trip to the hospital, emergency treatment efforts, and the fears and feelings swirling through his mind. At this point, injured people often have an awareness of their surroundings but no real understanding of what has actually happened. You may be thinking, “What’s going on? What’s wrong with me? Where’s my family?” Questions may float through your mind but you maybe too stunned to ask. Events seem beyond you. You feel as if you’ve been transported into someone else’s life. There is pain. There is no pain. Your headache is like no other you’ve experienced. Time whizzes by. Time is in slow motion.If you remember the trip to the hospital, you may recall the board on which you arrived and the doctors and nurses examining you. You may remember chaos in the ER, and the sudden appearance of family members and how they reacted, whether with tears or with stiff upper lips. After a quick visit, your family was probably escorted to the waiting room, and you were on your own again with medical staff.
*4/156/5*
Certain symptoms are suspicious and should be given serious consideration. Not long ago a state cancer organization asked 158 people with cancer why they had delayed so long in seeking medical attention with their problem. One half of them said that they had not taken it seriously. Two had hesitated because they were afraid of cancer and two because they were afraid of doctors. Ten per cent said that they just had not bothered about it, and another 10 per cent were afraid that it would cost them something to see the doctor. This information is enlightening, since we know that hundreds of thousands of lives could be saved today if people would just bring their symptoms soon enough to the attention of competent physicians and surgeons.Whenever a lump appears underneath the surface of the body and does not go away the symptom must be considered suspicious. Whenever there is bleeding or a discharge, from any portion of the body, that is not easily explainable the symptom is a warning sign. Whenever a sore or rubbed area in the body does not heal promptly, investigation should be made immediately. Cancers that may be seen and felt easily are those on the skin, in the mouth, or in the breast. Women are much less likely to suffer cancers of the skin than are men, because women are much more careful about the appearance of the surface of the body. Men suffer more cancers of the mouth than do women. Cancers of the breast, however, are far more frequent in women than in men. The most frequent cancers which cannot be seen or felt but which warn of their presence by unusual symptoms such as bleeding and discharges are cancers of the urinary bladder, the kidney, or the organs concerned in childbirth.Pain is a relatively late symptom in cancer. Pain is likely to cause people to seek medical attention promptly; but other symptoms usually come before pain. Cancers which cannot be seen and which do not give any external signs of their presence are those of the stomach, the bowels, or the lungs. Hoarseness that persists more than a short time, and particularly hoarseness that does not go away after the voice has been rested, may be considered a danger signal. Many a man with serious symptoms affecting his stomach satisfies himself with a dose of baking soda. This is like pouring water on a fire bell when the fire is burning in the house.*2/318/5*