I need your help with a campaign. My recent medical adventures have ignited a small new passion: to get some kind of anesthesia made available for a very painful exam that lots of women have to go through. My informal poll shows that half my pals have been there at least once.
Like being stabbed, an endometrial biopsy is fairly quick but hurts like hell. A friend who has gone through childbirth twice said this test was the worst pain she'd ever felt. And it's routinely done (at least in my town) with no painkiller of any sort.
Here's what I'm asking: suggest to any gynecologist you know that they offer some kind of numbing of mind or body for this procedure. (To men who've read this far: tell any chum of yours who's in this line of work.) A doc who starting doing this would be a sure superhero of mythic proportion. Women would probably fly from all parts of the continent just to have this test.
I've already talked to my doctor though as of Wednesday I won't have the parts for this kind of exam. And let me say, I'm not one who is angry with the medical profession. Quite the reverse. I'm permanently grateful to my doctors and others for the treatment I and several loved ones have had. But I'd feel like a passive sheep if, feeling strongly as I do just now, I didn't speak up about this unnecessary pain.
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2 comments:
Will do my part to crusade on behalf of all women enduring this procedure...
I have a needle phobia and thus any kind of procedure that involves needles brings on huge stress for me, particularly if it involves IV needles, as my veins are incredibly difficult to thread.
After several horrific episodes in OR's where they were prepared for surgery but I was wide awake b/c they couldn't get an IV started, I learned that they could use lidocaine spray on the skin as well as something to help me calm down.
After those episodes I also went for the sedation dental work b/c I didn't feel I had any "suck it up and be strong" energy left for those kinds of things.
I have been on similar crusades about other painful medical procedural issues - circumcision being a big one.
I have learned to question all medical professionals when they announce I (or my children) will need a procedure: how painful is it? and if they say "not very," I ask: have you had it done?
There is absolutely no reason any of us should feel pain during medical procedures when there are alternatives.
Wow, Billie! I like your enthusiasm, and seriousness.
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