Wisdom Teeth

I was once prescribed some hydrocodone after some minor surgery. I took the first dose, and while it alleviated the pain, it also made me feel as if my brain were wrapped in cotton. Which I hated. After that first dose, I decided I'd rather have the pain and a functioning brain, and never took any more of those damned pills.

We really need some powerful analgesics that don't warp the mind. I know that might be a tall order, since pain, ultimately, is in the head.

Which Patti Smith did you listen to? "Horses", maybe? I saw Patti Smith up in Ann Arbor a long time ago, and it was a painful experience. She and her band took forever to come on stage, and it was a SRO hot sweaty event to benefit AIDS victims. People were fainting in the audience, and the warm-up band's base player kept taunting the crowd, saying things like, "At least we're doing something", meaning that the band was contributing something positive to the universe, whereas we, the audience, were not. Eventually, Patti's late husband, Fred "Sonic" Smith, came out to play. He looked like he was near death, and Patti had to prompt him to remind him what he needed to do (play guitar). We had to leave before the main act came on. I still like Patti Smith, however, and in fact my 8yr old daughter has recently learned to play "Gloria" on her wee electric guitar, after being inspired by Patti Smith's version. So those are my Patti Smith stories.

I am pretty sure it was Easter. Stumpy should starts his own blog with stories like that.

I thought your daughter was into Blind Faith.

Not to my knowledge. I meant to say something also about other great music that is all about pain. There are two albums that stand out in this regard, and two songs off these albums in particular that are wonderfully bleak. The albums are "Plastic Ono Band", which everyone knows was John Lennon's primal scream album, and "Electroshock Blues", by a band called The Eels. The two songs are "My Mummy's Dead", which Lennon sings to the crushingly banal tune of "Three Blind Mice" and, bleakest of all songs ever written in English, "Elizabeth on the Bathroom Floor", from ESB. Generally speaking, I think that the emotion that lends itself best to rock music is anger. Devastation and loss are close seconds. Love and happiness are down the list a ways, and serve a pop context more easily.

Interesting to note the variation among humans in our response to pain control. I've been prescribed both hydrocodone and codeine after several injuries and surgeries. Both meds are incredibly and very rapidly effective for me, and both make me only mildly sleepy rather than truly euphoric -- which is good, because that means I have no urge at all to abuse these meds by taking them when nothing actually hurts. However, I've also been given Darvon and Demerol for pain after dental work and such. Neither helps me at all. (At least I don't have my mother's reaction to Demerol, which is to throw up.)

As an undergrad, I briefly believed a friend who said his ex-girlfriend swore by tetrahydrocannabinol for menstrual cramps. My experience: First, smoking up did nothing at all for my cramps. Second, the smoke gave me a nasty sore throat and a painful cough, adding to my misery. Third, the drug caused me to concentrate intensely on the pain with no possibility of distraction. If I believed in hell, that's what I'd be afraid it would be like.

I'm in favor of drug decriminalization, and have no objections to medical marijuana use, but if I ever have a health condition for which therapeutic marijuana is an option, I think I'll exhaust all other options first.