cancer

" it is occay to feel a bit of pain ....it will remind u that u are still alive "

writing about smoking reminded me of one of my patient who got lung cancer after being a chronic heavy smoker for many years

as an anaesthetist , we are also in charge of the acute pain service management
we are the people to be called when the doctor cannot treat the pain
we are pain specialist , so called - equipped with thousand types of pain killer..

so , there was this patient
he is already at the 4th stage of his cancer
no surgery of chemotheraphy could cure his illness anymore
technically , he was just waiting for his time to go

for everyone knowledge , cancer is a very painful disease
when u are at the terminal stage of the cancer
u will fell pain all over ur body
the pain was excruciating...
no amount of pain killer could heal the pain

same scenario with this patient..
even regular intake of morphine could not make him sleep well
there was time he was bagging us to take his life
but we are no God

i told him , " sir, we may not take ur pain away , but we are doing our best to make u feel as comfortable as possible "
we started him on the fentanyl  and ketamine infusion ...
the highest level of pain killer available on earth..
and yet... he was still in pain...

not long after that ... he passed away...
i just hope ... what we did for him.. could at least heal a bit of his pain...
maybe not much...
but at least... he knew that we did our best...