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Hope Beyond the Pain · The World Knowledge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Well, good afternoon, listeners. Thank you so much for listening
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: to Lament of Hope podcast. As you guys know, we
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: are nearing our 300th episode, which is amazing. And so
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: many people from around the world with different struggles and stories.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: And it's all because of you guys and your support.
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  Speaker 1: So I'm super grateful. I feel like I have to
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: say that every time I start because I just it
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  Speaker 1: always blows me away when I think about it.
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  Speaker 2: It is some days.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Some days it is. Yeah. I am very lucky. We've
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  Speaker 2: worked very hard to build a medical team around me
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  Speaker 2: that is very mindful of my limitations and my pain,
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: and they cater to whatever my illness is doing at
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  Speaker 2: the time. And especially at the beginning, pain was my
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  Speaker 2: biggest concern because my children were so young and that
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: was the traumatizing part for them was being mom in pain.
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  Speaker 2: I was very, very lucky to have a pain management
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  Speaker 2: doctor early on who scheduled appointments for my children. So
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  Speaker 2: we went in and I took the kids and they
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: went over everything that they could possibly do to me.
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  Speaker 2: And he was like, look, my only job is to
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  Speaker 2: make sure that mommy's not hurting. And my palliative team
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  Speaker 2: of nurses that would come to the house, they were amazing.
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  Speaker 2: And the kids could help them get medication and they
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  Speaker 2: would sit with me, the nurse or myself, depending on
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  Speaker 2: what it was at the time, could administer pain and
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: they could see that, look, there was one thing to do.
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  Speaker 2: And a big problem we have is that too many
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  Speaker 2: patients don't have the right kind of care. They don't
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  Speaker 2: know the right questions to ask. But we shouldn't be
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  Speaker 2: putting so much money into all of these campaigns and
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  Speaker 2: doing all of these things for patients to end their lives,
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  Speaker 2: where really we need to be putting our resources into
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  Speaker 2: educating patients, educating even doctors. There's so many doctors that
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: don't know all the options that are available. I will
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  Speaker 2: never get out of my mind. I went to a
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  Speaker 2: debate one time. And this woman came up and she
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  Speaker 2: was speaking for assisted suicide. And her wife, God, I
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  Speaker 2: could see her in my mind. Her wife went through horrific,
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  Speaker 2: horrific uncontrolled pain. And it was gut-wrenching to me because
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  Speaker 2: she talked about what medication she was on. And I
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  Speaker 2: was able to ask questions afterward. She was seeing a
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  Speaker 2: primary care doctor. She didn't have a hospice doctor. She
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  Speaker 2: didn't have someone trained in end-of-life care walking her through anything.
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  Speaker 2: And her wife was on medication that was really inappropriate
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  Speaker 2: for her condition. There were medications that were a hundred
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  Speaker 2: times stronger than what she was taking that could have
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  Speaker 2: been there to control her pain, but she didn't have
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  Speaker 2: the right physician in place and they didn't have the
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  Speaker 2: right questions to ask to get her the help that
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  Speaker 2: she needed. This woman died in pain and it was
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  Speaker 2: so unnecessary. And, um, That unfortunately is the story that
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  Speaker 2: some people have because they just didn't know. They didn't
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: know where to go. They didn't know what was available. And,
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  Speaker 2: you know, we should be ashamed of that. We should
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  Speaker 2: all be absolutely ashamed that we're putting so much energy
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  Speaker 2: into taking lives and not putting more energy into treating
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  Speaker 2: patients and giving them a better life.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: That's so interesting you say that because I think you're right.
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  Speaker 1: I think a lot of times it can be really easy,
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  Speaker 1: whatever side you're on, to really vilify the other or
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  Speaker 1: be really angry at the other side and say, how
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  Speaker 1: could you think this? But you're mentioning, like, this woman
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  Speaker 1: had seen her partner die in such bad pain. Like,
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  Speaker 1: of course she wouldn't want that on anybody. Of course
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  Speaker 1: she wouldn't want to see that again, her partner go
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  Speaker 1: through that again. She much rather she could have died
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: with dignity, as we would say, without thriving in pain,
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  Speaker 1: you know, and her last breath being.
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  Speaker 2: We failed them.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. I think you're... That is such a powerful reminder, because...
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  Speaker 1: It's just, yeah. Can I ask, you know, you mentioned
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  Speaker 1: your time in the hospital because I have had some
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  Speaker 1: really rough times in a hospital as well. Not nearly,
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  Speaker 1: I'm not going to compare, but they were really traumatic
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  Speaker 1: for me. Poor care, which really gave me just a
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  Speaker 1: fear of like the ER, really afraid of just medical,
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: you know, hospitals, you know, in general. You mentioned when
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  Speaker 1: you had the pneumonia and everything, that was really bad care.
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  Speaker 1: Can you kind of paint a picture for people of
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  Speaker 1: what that looked like?