Dealing with Pain

Reynolds Price never knew what real pain was until he had to deal with that generated from nerve cells damaged during surgery to remove a life-threatening malignant tumor from his spine. The damage was not due to any incompetence on the part of the surgeons; rather, it was unavoidable due to the nerves that were intertwined and intermeshed in the tumor which had probably been growing on his spine for years. Price was told that some of the pain was from "phantom" nerves that were dead. The pain was much like the soldier who loses a leg but still has a toe that is itching. No matter what the source, the pain was excruciating, unending and escalating by the day.

The doctors prescribed pain medications and even anti-depressants but most days these drugs and combinations of them had little if any impact on the pain. Price...