A lot of my friends here already know that my mother has been in horrible chronic pain for years. She hurt her back about four years ago, and when she had surgery to try and make things better it ended up making things a LOT worse.
Since then she's been in so much pain that she pretty much can't live a life. She doesn't sleep more than three hours at a time, ever, and she can't drive, or even really walk around because of it. They've got her on a 24-hour-a-day morphine patch and she eats oxycodone pills like they're Pez candies, and despite turning her into a zombie that still doesn't touch the pain.
A long time ago, I saw Jerry Lewis on David Letterman talking about how for years he was in unbearable pain from injuries he took during his years doing physical comedy. They had him on massive doses of steroids in his back to try and control it, which had caused him to bloat up horribly, and even still he wasn't able to get around, or pick up his own son, or live any kind of a life.
No drugs could help his pain, and then he tried a back implant that created a signal in his spine that overwhelmed the pain signals. He said it transformed his life entirely, in a way that he had come to believe was never going to be possible again. He was off drugs, the bloating had gone away, and he was able to live his life fully and without any pain whatsoever.
He was so touched by the experience, so convinced that this machine had saved his life, that he did a full press tour about it. He did all three talk shows, all the radio shows, Larry King, and anyone else who would give him air time, to make sure to let as many people as possible who might be in the same kind of pain as him, know about this thing. It stuck in my mind because I thought it was an extremely humanitarian thing to do. That tour had to be an exhausting pain in the ass for a man his age, and not cheap either since a movie studio wasn't paying for it.
So when my mother suddenly had this pain issue, I started banging the Jerry Lewis drum. I kept reminding her about what I'd seen, and asking doctors about it, but for a long time nobody really listened, including her. I think she just didn't believe I knew what I was talking about.
But finally in desperation, she started listening, and asking her doctors about it, and after many delays and almost tragic interruptions, she tried the temporary trial implant this week.
And it made the pain go completely away. Completely. Away.
I could literally cry right now writing those words.
She's not out of the woods yet, the temporary implant has to come out today and she goes right back to Hell while she sweats out the wait for the permanent implant. But now it's a sure thing, the pain will be over soon. Last week nobody really thought that would ever happen.
So last night she called me, and thanked me, for saving her life. She said she never would have known about this thing if I hadn't told her about it, and never would have tried it if I hadn't brought it up again and again and again.
Obviously it's a ridiculous exaggeration to say I saved her life, but hearing those words from my mother...
Since then she's been in so much pain that she pretty much can't live a life. She doesn't sleep more than three hours at a time, ever, and she can't drive, or even really walk around because of it. They've got her on a 24-hour-a-day morphine patch and she eats oxycodone pills like they're Pez candies, and despite turning her into a zombie that still doesn't touch the pain.
A long time ago, I saw Jerry Lewis on David Letterman talking about how for years he was in unbearable pain from injuries he took during his years doing physical comedy. They had him on massive doses of steroids in his back to try and control it, which had caused him to bloat up horribly, and even still he wasn't able to get around, or pick up his own son, or live any kind of a life.
No drugs could help his pain, and then he tried a back implant that created a signal in his spine that overwhelmed the pain signals. He said it transformed his life entirely, in a way that he had come to believe was never going to be possible again. He was off drugs, the bloating had gone away, and he was able to live his life fully and without any pain whatsoever.
He was so touched by the experience, so convinced that this machine had saved his life, that he did a full press tour about it. He did all three talk shows, all the radio shows, Larry King, and anyone else who would give him air time, to make sure to let as many people as possible who might be in the same kind of pain as him, know about this thing. It stuck in my mind because I thought it was an extremely humanitarian thing to do. That tour had to be an exhausting pain in the ass for a man his age, and not cheap either since a movie studio wasn't paying for it.
So when my mother suddenly had this pain issue, I started banging the Jerry Lewis drum. I kept reminding her about what I'd seen, and asking doctors about it, but for a long time nobody really listened, including her. I think she just didn't believe I knew what I was talking about.
But finally in desperation, she started listening, and asking her doctors about it, and after many delays and almost tragic interruptions, she tried the temporary trial implant this week.
And it made the pain go completely away. Completely. Away.
I could literally cry right now writing those words.
She's not out of the woods yet, the temporary implant has to come out today and she goes right back to Hell while she sweats out the wait for the permanent implant. But now it's a sure thing, the pain will be over soon. Last week nobody really thought that would ever happen.
So last night she called me, and thanked me, for saving her life. She said she never would have known about this thing if I hadn't told her about it, and never would have tried it if I hadn't brought it up again and again and again.
Obviously it's a ridiculous exaggeration to say I saved her life, but hearing those words from my mother...
