Re: OBIT: Michael Turner dead at 37

On Jun 29, 7:16 am, OM <om@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Sat, 28 Jun 2008 20:53:56 -0700 (PDT), "M.O.R"

<preda...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

One thing we were all grateful for was that he remarkably never had
any pain whatsoever, especially considering how aggressive Pancreatic
Cancer can be.

...That's because terminal cases are given all the drugs they want to
keep the pain under control. I had a push-button morphine drip the
whole three weeks after I gave birth to "Stumpy", and much to their
chagrin I'd figured out how to hack the pump so I could get two units
every 3 minutes. Needless to say I felt *NOOO* pain during that
particular stay.
                                OM
--

But this is the funny thing, he wasn't on any morphine or any other
kind of pain medication, the only thing he was taking was Epilim to
control the seizures, which he would get every fortnight, and Zoltan
for his stomach, to help his digestion, as well as Furosemide for
fluid retention, and Ventilim with a nebuliser for his chest, as he
would sometimes become breathless, like a bad cough. He was mostly at
home where we cared for him, but when he got a bad seizure he would
have to go to hospital, because he might sometimes get a bad fever
also.

He never had to use morphine, even on his last days alive, a morphine
pump was brought into his room as a precaution, but it was never
connected up to him. Everyone was amazed that he never needed any
kind of pain medication, we had morphine at home in case of his
condition getting worse, but it was never needed. We all feared the
pain that he would get, as we knew Pancreatic Cancer is terminal in
the worst of cases, my dad being given 12 months, and even if it is
caught in time, the best a patient can hope for is a few years. There
are rare occassions where the sufferer beats it, but again, they are
rare.

I had lost an uncle a year before my dad passing, my dad's brother and
best man at his wedding, and while I had not seen him in his last
weeks, we had heard that he had alot of pain and was hooked up to
multiple pain medications in the form of drips, yet he still had
pain. The same goes for my Aunt's brother in law, who had the same
type of cancer that my dad had, and he died over 10 years before my
father. He had to have cold baths just to get some sleep, and he was
on pain meds also.

That my father did not was extraordinary. It is something we are
grateful for every single day.
.

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