Pain is an interesting animal: 87/100
23 October, 2016 | Index
Dear Hillary Clinton,
Gerard Mclean here, from Englewood, Ohio, about ten miles north of Dayton, This is the eighty-seventh letter of one hundred I am writing you on health care; one for each day between your nomination and your election. The previous letters can be found in your USPS mailbox or online at 100HRC.com.
Pain is an interesting animal.
When I got hit with a bout of CIDP hard at the end of 2012 and through 2013–14, what my friends and family saw was someone who could not walk all that well without walkers and canes and such. I spent a fair amount of time in a Lazy-Boy and the IVIG center at OSU, managing my world through computers and social media.
I felt — and those around me most likely felt as well — that I was one of the lucky ones. Regardless of my inability to stand or walk all that well, at least I had my mind. I could make a living with my head. They and I were only partly correct.
Pain affects one’s ability to focus, to create, to think coherently. In my case, my nerves were so wracked up that many days, I could only write on an iPhone with one thumb… a notebook had too many keys and too many errant clicks. In short, I faked my viability through those years; I had a family that needed the mortgage, college tuition, health insurance paid. Just concentrating on getting better as my neurologist wanted was not an option. This admission may come as a surprise to those I spoke with throughout that ordeal. I’m still fighting the symptoms, as I write this letter, but not as much. Relapse is a constant worry.
For someone with an overwhelming need to create, physical pain is minuscule compared to the overwhelming frustration leading to internal rage that few understand or see a logical cause.
We need SinglePayer, MedicareForAll, UniversalCare that takes care of the whole human. We are not simply machines with mechanical parts.
Regards,
Gerard McLean
cc: Sen. Sherrod Brown
87/17
