Pain Relief Is for Those Who Prepare

Up next:  Diphtheria--Will This Dreaded Childhood Disease Be Making a Comeback?

For most medical conditions, when we look for help what we are really seeking is relief from the pain.  Not all conditions, mind you.  Runny noses aren't particularly painful, just annoying.  Now the pain may come from a serious injury, of course, but if the pain weren't an issue, we'd likely self-treat and skip the doctor a lot of the time.

Why do we cook?  Is it not to prevent or relieve hunger pangs/pain?  If we didn't experience hunger, would we cook as much or at all?  Why do we store food at home?  (Other than the fact that all heck is about to break loose.)  One reason is to save time, but isn't the other to prevent the pain of having to go to the store everyday?

Our emergency rooms are filled with people who really don't need emergency room care.  Unfortunately, laws in our country are such that they must be seen and treated.  And the law-abiding people are on the hook for this often unnecessary treatment.  The truth is, the majority of ER patients don't need ER treatment and could in fact be cared for at home.  But Americans are ignorant and illegals know how to work the system.  Everyone demands answers and pain relief now.

How's that work out when life becomes more interesting?

Basically, pain relief is for those who prepare.

When our society collapses, some people will only see good nutrition and a balanced diet in the rear view mirror.  Diseases like scurvy, beriberi, and night blindness may affect Americans again.  Scurvy needs only a little bit of vitamin C to keep it at bay.  Vitamin A can be stored in the body, so a few good meals of winter squash will help replenish and build a reserve, but the night blindness may be permanent.  Vitamin D is best sourced from the sun and is free for all.  But those B vitamins?  The body needs most of them every day.  Deficiencies of any of these essential vitamins ultimately mean pain for the body.  Some even mean death. So do the vitamins and nutritious food you stored get shared with others?  Ideally, we would get all the vitamins we need from the food we grow.  Unfortunately, as often happens when societies collapse, and has interestingly been the case in 2020, crops don't always grow as we would like.  Devastating losses have plagued Big Ag and home gardeners alike.  A derecho that wipes out 10 million acres of corn?  Freak freezes weeks earlier that normal?  Bad harvests for all mean less good food on the table.  For some it will mean none at all.  For many, it will mean malnutrition.

As emergency rooms become dangerous places, more people will elect to stay at home and self-treat, especially when they realize that hospital supplies are limited and what is available will be reserved to treat those with life-threatening conditions and who are contributing members of society.  Doctors may issue prescriptions which family members have to scramble to fill, if it is even possible.  

So what will happen here?

Hunger pangs.  Those pains eventually go away.  They're not life-threatening, not immediately at least.  Most people need to lose weight anyway.

Headaches.  Most of these eventually go away, but they can be very debilitating in the meantime.  If a person cannot function due to the pain, critical roles aren't being fulfilled, whether it's childcare, security, cooking, cleaning, or other work.

Muscle aches.  Most of these also eventually resolve without medication, but physical labor can be difficult or impossible without relief. 

Arthritis.  Mobility will be seriously limited for many individuals without pain relievers.

Nausea.  People will just have to suck it up, but what if nausea and vomiting prevent a person from keeping down critical antibiotics?

Strep throat and sinus infections.  These will generally go away without antibiotics, but it may take a while and there's a lot of pain in the meantime.  It's really hard seeing your child in that much pain.  Unfortunately, if you haven't stocked the antibiotics, no physician who happens to have them on hand will give them to you.  Those antibiotics will be reserved for life-threatening illnesses in individuals deemed essential to the community's survival.

Hemorrhoids.  Most of those will go away.  Eventually.

Broken bones.  These will require some splinting supplies.  Of course, pain meds would be nice, especially lidocaine and epinephrine, which won't do much, but may help some.  What if it's a compound fracture that breaks the skin?  Then you  are going to need some serious antibiotics.

Lacerations.  Do you have sutures?  Are you planning to improvise?  My sutures are for my family.  Outsiders get a needle and thread.  And those sewing needles are much more painful.  My injectable anesthetics are also for my family.  We can probably spare a sagebrush branch for you to bite on.

Appendicitis.  Now you need some serious antibiotics.  A surgeon would be nice, some anesthesia (ether), sterile surgical supplies, etc.  Are you planning to run a Go Fund Me campaign to get what you need?  Keep in mind that most appendicitis cases occur in the young, and children especially aren't going to be too open to biting on a stick or leather while being cut up. 

Chronic pain.  Some people will choose death/suicide without medications for pain management.  That's reality.  It's our duty to prepare to relieve the pains we know or believe we and our family members will experience.  It's important for morale and happiness.

If conventional medical supplies are exhausted, it's our responsibility to learn how to use herbs.  Learn what is in your area and how to prepare and use it.  Herbs aren't some hocus-pocus stuff.  They do really work.  But like conventional pharmaceuticals, they don't all always work for everyone.  

Prepare now to relieve pain, or prepare to be in pain later.  Those are the options.  Choose wisely.

8 november 2022