Recently, I had an encounter with someone I’d never met yet I knew her very well. Let me explain. I work part-time as a pharmacist – mostly so I can afford my healthcare insurance. That is a topic for another time. My job provides me with many opportunities to interact with patients and assist them with medication questions and other health concerns. It is very rewarding.
The other day I had a first-time experience while working. A youngish woman approached me with an anguished look. She was in a lot of pain due to a disc injury in her back. Her doctors had told her that she could not take muscle relaxants or narcotic pain medication due to the other medications she was taking. She then told me she had Parkinson’s disease (PD) and was on selegiline. I immediately empathized and told her I would do some research to help out. However, I knew her doctors were correct. After spending too much time researching pain medications that would not interact with her PD medicine, the best I could do was recommend some less powerful drugs that probably would not cut through the pain. I also suggested some non-medication options (physical therapy, massage therapy, stretch therapy).
It was difficult not to see myself in her shoes. I related to her but couldn’t tell her. Her anguish was all over her face. It was conveying that her non-PD related condition was being made even more difficult on her due to her PD. It’s unfortunate but we will probably all have to deal with this at some point. Since I haven’t had to yet, this encounter really affected me. She’s been on my mind ever since.
It was a weird feeling to see yourself in someone else. Two days later I ended up counseling a man who was getting a new medication. He also had PD and was acting out his dreams and kicking his wife at night. He was hoping the drug would work so they could continue to share a bed. We laughed but both us knew how serious the situation is for them.
It made me think…if I don’t have a bed partner, would I need a drug to stop my kicking? If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound?
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