WINNING THE PAIN GAME

The French part of the French Connection with Popeye.

Beat The Pain Game, Then The Withdrawal Game.

One of the regulars came in today, though not on his cherried out Harley.

Wet and cold is no way to ride a hog if you don’t have to.

Said he’d been out a couple of weeks for shoulder surgery.

Five places on his shoulder got opened up, but they’ll heal and look like freckles.

“I can’t tell where they cut,” I said.

“No scars, no zipper. Not with a scope. They cleaned things up, got rid of the extra.”

“Just like that. How was the post-op pain?” I asked. To sound medically smart try and use words you’ve heard on TV.

“Well I’ve had plenty of experience with surgery, so this time I got out in front of the pain. Once it sinks in it’s hard to back down.”

“What did the docs give you?”

“Last time I had oxy. Got more this time, but they gave me oral morphine too.”

“You stacked oxy and morphine?”

“I guess you could say that. The pain was under control until I decided to stop. Since I planned to go to work on Monday, I stopped Friday.”

“You stopped too soon?”

“No. The surgery pain was minimal. I won the pain game, but the withdrawal pain was huge. I had a panic attack. The morphine got to me, but I wasn’t going to take more just to ease up the withdrawal.”

“Right, then you wouldn’t be withdrawing.”

“Tell you right here, I understand why people keep taking the stuff. Coming off was horrible.”

“Have you had panic attacks before?”

“Yeah, and I know the triggers. But nothing like a morphine panic attack. I was going crazy. It’s hard to describe what chronic pain means to someone who’s never had it. Same with withdrawal symptoms. I ended up in the emergency room.”

“Yikes.”

“You’re telling me? After things calmed down I got a prescription for antidepressants. So now I’m coming off oxy, morphine, and Zoloft. I think it was Zoloft.”

“Which one was hardest?”

“The Zoloft made me brain dead is how I describe it. By the time I snapped out of that my morphine withdrawal was done.”

“Let me ask you, would you go back on morphine if the withdrawal was worse?”

“I can understand why someone would. Look, I used to chew tobacco. I quit because I knew it wasn’t good for me. Do I still want a chew? Yep. But I don’t because it’s not good for me. I treated morphine the same way. If you don’t need it, don’t use it.”

“The big drug story is black tar heroin. That’s where people go after their oxy gets too expensive.”

“That right?”

“Sam Quinones wrote a book called Dreamland about that journey. I heard him at Powell’s.”

“I like Powell’s.”

“Sometimes that heroin seed gets planted early. Millennials are taking to it.”

“That’s what I hear. It comes with the city.”

“Comes with the suburbs, too.”

“I haven’t heard much about that.”

“You won’t until you either live next to a heroin house, or know someone living there.”

“Hope I never do.”

“Have you seen The French Connection? There’s another one call French Connection II where Gene Hackman’s Popeye Doyle goes through heroin withdrawal. Sounds like you could’ve played the part.”

“I’ll check it out.”