When This Life Ends A New Life Begins

 

Dear Bloggers,

Just before springtime comes and every now and then there’s a little ray of sunshine that brightens up the dark days of the wintertime. Even if live life to the fullest and you are still making loads of plans. But somehow your sickness is kicking in and slowly but surely the body has to give up bit by bit. And at a certain moment your days are counted.

.

“Life starts and it ends with a breath, in between these two breaths lays a story; a child is born and explores the world; the child smiles and cries; the child lives and becomes a man; the man learns that life is neither good or bad, just beautiful the way it is.

Life ends on this earth by letting go of the first breath, because the man knows that letting go is the path that leads to freedom; and then life begins again purer than ever.”

Think about the flowers. Life is just a bunch of pretty pictures. All this is supposed to do is force you beyond the mind, when you realize that you can't figure it out.

People often wonder what they should say to a person who is dying. It is understandable that you might feel confused – what you feel might be so complex that it is hard to find the right words, or any words at all. It is natural to worry about saying the wrong thing. You may want to offer something that will help them cope but don’t know what that is. It is usually better to say something than to pretend nothing is wrong.

Most times, someone who is dying will find comfort in you being there, and appreciate knowing that family and friends are thinking of them. Even if you feel you’re not doing anything, just being there sends the message that you care.

It isn't clear how long a person who is dying retains awareness of what is going on around them, but research suggests that some degree of awareness may remain even after the person slips from unconsciousness.

Often, people will lapse into a coma before they die—a deep state of unconsciousness and unresponsiveness. People in a coma may still hear people talking even when they can no longer respond. Because of this, the health department suggests that caregivers, family, and physicians should behave as if the dying person is aware of what is going on and is able to hear and understand voices.

 

A 2020 study that investigated hearing in palliative care patients who were close to death provides evidence that some people may still be able to hear while in an unresponsive state. (EEG) was used to measure the dying brain's response to sound. The findings suggest that telling a person you love them in their final may register with them.

Dying is a natural process that the body has to work at. Just as a woman in labor knows a baby is coming, a dying person may instinctively know death is near. Even if your loved one doesn't discuss their death, they most likely know it is coming.

In some cases, the person may come from a culture or a family in which death is simply not discussed. Furthermore, your loved one may sense that others feel uncomfortable recognizing the dying process so they don't want to bring it up.

 

Death can then become the elephant in the room. Everyone knows it's there but no one will acknowledge it. Family discussions may be awkward and superficial and never reach an intimate level.

Talking about death is rarely easy. Many of us feel uncomfortable even saying the words "death" or "dying." Talking about it with a loved one who has been diagnosed with a terminal illness can be especially awkward.

 

First, remember that you are talking to someone who is still living, and that talking about memories and shared experiences honors the dying person's life. Experiencing sadness with the loved one is appropriate; that's part of life, too.

If necessary, a therapist or a social worker with experience in this area can make these conversations easier.

 

The flowers will fade no matter what but the memories we made will never be lost.

The Old Sailor,

Living with chronic pain, nothing to be sad about it

 

Dear Bloggers,

 

As a seemingly healthy person in my mid-50s, most people don’t suspect that I am living with chronic pain. When I tell people about my condition, it feels like many still doubt that I’m serious or assume I’m exaggerating. But truthfully, like many with invisible conditions, I’m probably more likely to downplay the severity of my discomfort on the rare occasion that I do mention it. It’s the kind of thing that seems to make people uneasy: pain that’s frequent or constant, with no means to alleviate, even though I always wish the Paracetamol in my medicine cabinet would magically do the trick. 

How things came into my life?

My chronic pain started in my late teens and has been worsening for years. It’s localized most intensely in my joints hands, knees, feet and neck. Along with it are daily pain on some of my ribs and monthly inflammations of bursae. The cause of it all is the weight of my body, working on it, but the progress is not very fast if you cannot work out fully anymore as I ripped a couple of muscles through the years of existence and this is worsening my pain. 

Am I the only one?

No, There are many people that are dealing with chronic pain and many of them know how to hide it from the outside world and some of them are living right through the pain. Others like me need some treatment in pain relief and go to a specialist for advice and treatment. In other words, many millions of people around the world are dealing with invisible and ongoing pain. I’m far from alone in my experience. 

Diagnosis

Arthritis and inflammation is an important cause of joints pain. I wake up off and on throughout the night with shooting pain in legs knees and hands, my finger lives a life of their own. Every morning, my joints and fingers are stiff and painful, sending shockwaves of pain through from my whole body. In the beginning, I believed that it was all in my head. Doing dishes or walking for a long distance but also sitting in the same position can kill my day and make life completely miserable. Some days, I know as soon as I get out of bed that the combination of feeling sour and pain means I just won’t be able to sit at my computer and write a blog story on this day.

A good healthcare provider can help you find the root cause of the pain while treating it. This is particularly critical for younger people. Because it’s less common for chronic pain to appear at a young age, a medical issue can usually be uncovered and providers don’t want lifelong chronic pain to be the diagnosis if it doesn’t have to be. Although you have to request for it when you explain that this might save them a lot of money, it might help. In my case, the healthcare providers were giving up pretty quickly and diagnosed me with Fibromyalgia and gave me medication (Diclofenac it stops inflammation and I had it for more than 15 years) to ease the pain. Nowadays, they tend to be “even more aggressive in looking for the causes of pain,” prioritizing things like MRIs, CAT scans, and blood work. Well the source of my pain was visually apparent and was diagnosable by a Rheumatologist and a physical therapist, the learned me to accept my pain and live with it without any other medication then Paracetamol. Every case is different, so go and see your physician and talk things through, as more elusive causes require tests like those mentioned above. 

With older patients, these diagnostic tests are also fairly routine options, particularly if pain is persistent despite treatment or does not have a clear cause. However, there is often some pain to be expected during the normal aging process, so it’s more typical to see older patients with chronic pain issues or for the cause to be clear, such as mine Arthritis.

 

Causes

"Oftentimes there was physical trauma, emotional trauma, or chemical trauma that initiated the [pain] process” for patients.

 Other common causes of chronic pain can be: Inflammation, for example caused by arthritis or an Infection, such as an ear infection and also an illness, such as cancer, muscular dysfunction like spasm. Chronic repetitive motion like a frozen shoulder or autoimmune diseases, such as fibromyalgia or rheumatoid arthritis.

However, this list does not cover every possible origin. There are a massive variety of causes, locations, and intensities of chronic pain conditions. This can make the nebulous condition hard to categorize or track. 

Treating it

The options for treating or reducing chronic pain are nearly as vast as the potential causes. This can often delay relief if the first treatment is ineffective. In my case, I was sent to physical therapy first and went for many months, but found no relief from this route other than a confirmation of cause, so I’m now exploring alternatives. Many physicians hesitate to prescribe opioid painkillers for chronic pain because of their addictive potential. However, non-opioid solutions can be effective.

Treatment options for chronic pain

Medication is far from the only possible solution. Other treatment options for chronic pain are Physical therapy, Acupuncture, Local electrical stimulation, Brain stimulation, Surgery, Chiropractic treatment in all of these cases you are the one that decides in the end.

The best cure for my personal situation is treatment with medication in the long run according to the Rheumatologist we should wait with it as long as we possibly can. As Meds can do more damage in some cases. I’ve tried some other pain-alleviating routes in the meantime (including physical therapy and some Zen course to get my life in balance.) and have been slowly investigating more options recently (like chiropractic treatment and acupuncture) but this is for the years to come. 

Ultimately, what works for each person may be one of these things, a combination of several, or something else altogether. Some people may get some relief from treatments like these, but need surgery or deeper medical intervention to fix the root condition causing the pain. 

For a lot of people, myself included, just being aware of the range of options for treatment, and the fact that so many other people are in a similar boat (be it one we can’t see), provides the first bit of relief.

Smile everyday it might give less negative feelings

 

The Old Sailor,