...Painful menstrual periods Dysmenorrhea is the medical term for the painful cramps that may occur immediately before or during the menstrual period. Menstrual cramps are caused by contractions in the uterus, which is a muscle. The uterus, the hollow, pear-shaped organ where a baby grows, contracts throughout a woman's menstrual cycle. If the uterus contracts too strongly, it can press against nearby blood vessels, cutting off the supply of oxygen to the muscle tissue of the uterus. Pain results when part of a muscle briefly loses its supply of oxygen. Painful menstrual periods are periods in which a woman has crampy lower abdominal pain, sharp or aching pain that comes and goes, or possibly back pain.Although some pain during your period is normal, excessive pain is not. Many women have painful periods. Sometimes, the pain makes it difficult to perform normal household, job, or school-related activities for a few days during each menstrual cycle. Painful menstruation is the leading cause of lost time from school and work among women in their teens and 20s. Causes Painful menstrual periods fall into two groups, depending on the cause: • Primary dysmenorrhea • Secondary dysmenorrhea Primary dysmenorrhea is menstrual pain (cramps) usually begin one to two years after a woman starts getting her period. Pain usually is felt in the lower abdomen or back. They can be mild to severe. Common menstrual cramps often start shortly before or at the onset of the period and continue...
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...The Tolosa-Hunt syndrome is a rare autoimmune with an estimated annual incidence of one case per million per year. It is characterized by painful ophthalmoplegia (weakness of the eye muscles) and is caused by an idiopathic granulomatous inflammation of the cavernous sinus. While considered a benign condition, permanent neurologic deficits can occur, and relapses are common, often requiring prolonged immunosuppressive therapy. Tolosa-Hunt syndrome must be carefully differentiated from more malignant diagnoses, a mandate challenged by the lack of a specific diagnostic test abnormality. The Tolosa-Hunt syndrome is caused by an inflammatory process of unknown etiology. On histopathology, there is a nonspecific inflammation of the septa and wall...
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...Italy doi:10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2005.08.010 Topical Morphine in the Treatment of Painful Ulcers To the Editor: In a previous issue of the journal, Zeppetella et al. published data regarding the use of topical morphine in the treatment of painful ulcers, confirming the results of a pilot study. Topical morphine seems to be safe and efficacious in the treatment of ulcer-related pain.1,2 At the Medical Oncology Department of the University of L’Aquila, five patients with malignant or benign painful ulcers were observed recently. All were affected by metastatic cancer and were receiving opioids; none was receiving disease-oriented therapies. On admission, all patients reported pain localized to ulcers, which was no longer controlled by systemic treatment; pain scores were O 5 on a numerical rating scale (NRS). Morphine was topically applied to ulcers three times daily (morphine sulfate injection 10 mg in 8 g Intrasite gelÒ, Smith & Nephew, Agrate Brianza, Italy). The morphine dose was the same in all patients, regardless of the ulcer size and the scheduled systemic treatment. Ulcers were washed before treatment with a ringer lactate and metronidazole solution. Systemic treatment was not modified. Pain was assessed daily by the patients using the NRS; nurses reported local and/or systemic adverse effects related to treatment in nursing charts. Patients were observed in the hospital for seven days. Characteristics of patients and pain scores are reported in Table 1. All patients responded ...
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...21/05/2016 This I Believe Even though the truth can be very painful, understanding that truth can lead to personal growth. I have learned that in the face of painful revelations. I was born and grew up in the western part of Ethiopia; in a small village called Ghimbi. I am the first for my parents. Until I was 10, I cherished love and joy from both my dad and mom. I remember how much I could enjoy attending church service with my dad every Sunday. One Sunday night, my dad came home with unusual behavior. He was heavily drunk and intoxicated. He started to argue with my mom. At the middle of their argument, he pointed his finger at me and said: "I don't know from whom you get this kid, he is not my son!". Even though I didn't understand what my dad want to say at the moment, my mom spent her whole night by hugging me and crying and crying. Maybe it doesn't give any sense for someone lives in developed country. But this is twenty years ago in one of the poorest country in the world and a small village where no one knows about DNA test. When I grew up, I started to realize what my father said that night. He treated me differently from my younger brothers. The only person that worried about my education, my cloth, shoes and even for what I eat was my mom. My dad completely ignored me and gave full attention to my brothers. I took his ignorance as a proof of denial of me as his son. Gradually, I developed a sense of hate against my father. I started to wish to kill him...
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...very first set of milk or primary teeth can take up to 2 or 3 years of time to appear. The process of teething could be painful and difficult time for your baby. Learning to identify teething signs is the vital step in determining the excellent remedy for babies teething. Every child is unique and thus, recognizing the symptoms might be somewhat problematic. This is because each baby experiences teething uniquely, physicians and parents usually disagree as to the teething symptoms and how irritable and painful it is. However, most times, a symptom remains the same. Symptoms when your babies teeth Irritability – Cutting tooth is...
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...common genetic disease in the United States." (Guyatt, GH 2007). Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) is inherited and results in a decrease of the ability of red blood cells to carry much-needed oxygen through the body. The cells become clogged, due to their crescent shape, which keeps them from delivering oxygen. This can cause unbearable pain, damage to the body organs, and even death. The frequency of the pain episodes can range from several a year to multiple times a day. SCD is caused by hemoglobin S, which is an abnormal type of hemoglobin. When the cells are exposed to low oxygen levels, the Hemoglobin S changes the shape of the red blood cells. Red blood cells are made of marrow that is located inside the large bones of the body. The bone marrow is constantly making new red blood cells to replace the old cells. The life of the normal red blood cell life is about 120 days. Their purpose is to carry oxygen and remove the carbon dioxide, which is a waste product, from the body. Sickle-shaped cells die about ten to twenty days that prevents the bone marrow from making new red blood cells. Ethnicity plays a part in SCD, with African Americans more likely to be affected. Both parents are carriers of the sickle cell trait which is passed on to the child. The child will inherit the hemoglobin (S) gene from one parent and normal hemoglobin (A) gene from the other parent. Children who have parents that each carries the trait will have an increased twenty-five percent chance of inheriting...
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...The Nightmare Picture yourself sleeping in your bed then suddenly your door bursts open and you are taken away by someone you don’t know. Before you know it you’re being injected by needles and painful procedures are the next thing in line. Then you’re thrown into a dark lonely cage where all you can do is fear when the next terrifying procedure will be. This nightmare can only be described as animal experimentation. Over 100 million animals suffer and die every year in cruel chemical, drug, food and cosmetic tests, biology lessons, medical training exercises, and curiosity-driven medical experiments that we can’t even begin to imagine. Plus, only 5% of these experiments only come out positive! No experiment is illegal, no matter how cruel, irrelevant to human health, or painful. Which really makes no since considering tons of people get arrested every day for animal cruelty, but yet it’s legal for people to do lethal and painful tests on them for “experimental” purposes only. Just how much do we really know what’s going on during those labs every day? To test cosmetics, household cleaners, and other everyday products, thousands of animals are poisoned, blinded, and killed every day by cruel and selfish corporations. Just think about that happening to your own animal, what would you say? Mice and rats are forced to inhale toxic fumes, dogs are force fed pesticides, and rabbits have harsh chemicals rubbed onto their skin and eyes. Is it really worth taking another animal’s...
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...Immense loyalty between loved ones often proves tremendously painful. In Homer’s epic The Odyssey, devoted husband and wife are in the position to part for twenty years. While separate, they face challenges that possess enough power to make or break their relationship. Odysseus must stay faithful to Penelope while also doing what is necessary to ensure his arrival home. Meanwhile, Penelope is stuck living with persistent, selfish suitors who exploit their power over her. She has no choice but to allow their abhorrent behavior. In order to prove their loyalty and love, the two must make arduous sacrifices causing excruciating pain. Therefore, Homer highlights the value of loyalty in this epic through the painful sacrifices characters undertake...
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... “I don’t think it’s supposed to do that,” said my doctor. She gave me an appointment card for later that day to go get x-rays. I went to get the x-rays and was told to come back in a few days. When I came back, I was nervous. My back had been feeling worse everyday. The doctor entered the room and pulled up my x-rays. He zoomed in to a strange looking part of my spine....
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...Entering Womanhood Most women, since the age of about 11, every month experience what it is like to have a menstrual cycle. During the menstrual phase women have a discharge of the “thickened inner layer of the endometrium” tissue that has sloughed off from the uterine wall when conception does not take place (Alexander et al. 109). “This menstrual discharge consists of blood, mucus, and endometrial membranes that sometimes present as small clots” (Alexander et al. 109). The menstrual flows and the cycles themselves vary. A woman’s flow is “usually 6 to 8 ounces in volume per cycle,” while the cycle on average lasts 28 days but “can vary from 21 to 40 days” (Alexander et al. 109). For most menstruation occurs without medical problems. While for others, menstruation can cause some physical and emotional problems such as cramps (known as dysmenorrheal), or premenstrual syndrome (PMS), a lack of having a menstrual cycle which is knows as amenorrhea (Alexander et al. 112-114). One such medical problem is endometriosis. Endometriosis is a common medical condition in which “tissue like that which lines the uterus (tissue called the endometrium) is found outside the uterus -- usually in the abdomen on the ovaries, fallopian tubes, and ligaments that support the uterus; the area between the vagina and rectum; the outer surface of the uterus; and the lining of the pelvic cavity. Other sites for these endometrial growths may include the bladder, bowel, vagina, cervix, vulva...
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...unbearable. Many argue that forcing a person to live with an incurable and painful disorder is like condemning them to a life of torture. Physician assisted suicide should be a decision a patient can make as long as they meet certain criteria and submit to mandated screening. A sane and sober person should have the right to choose. We allow people to treat themselves with snake bites, drinking horse urine and a wide range of absurd treatments. Why can’t we choose to treat a terminal disease with death? It’s perfectly legal for an 18yr old to smoke cigarettes knowing it exponentially increases their chances of severe illness and death. The restriction of choice infringes on basic human rights to live free of oppression and pain. If a person chooses suicide to alleviate suffering what right do we have to stop them? Restricting assisted suicide is not only condemning the patient to a life of pain and suffering but often the family of the patient with crippling debt and emotional stress. Imagine watching someone you loved suffer through excruciating pain day in and day out with no way to help them. Continued medical expenses for hospital care can easily bankrupt a family which weighs heavily on the patient as in most cases they know they are ruining the lives of the ones they love. Given the choice, 92% of people would like to plan their death. What if you knew you were going to die in a car accident 3 days before it happened? Wouldn’t it be nice to get a chance...
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...Reflection on Holocaust When a person says holocaust, we think about the monumental history background of World War Two. Besides that, we associated is the death of million Jewish people in concentration camps. And the biggest one of all named Auschwitz, where most of Jewish people’s lives were ended here, known as the camp of death. By following the video of Abraham Bomba who endured Auschwitz, a scene of a thousand Jews suffers the laborious days, float in my eyes, fuzzy but impressive, and the meaning behind his story impacts my life, then the future. After watching this video, sadness immensely fills in my heart. As Abraham said in the video, “Inside it was very painful. Most painful was because some of the barbers, they recognized their dear ones, like wives, mothers, even grandmothers. Can you imagine that you have to cut their hair and not to tell them a word because you were not allowed?” (Bomba, “Survivor Testimonies”) Every memory of the Holocaust is excruciating, as painful as Abraham tells. However, throughout his speaking, there is not a word said about the Germans, which I feel is the way he tolerates with his pain....
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...that things change every day. The author also states that friends become enemies which also goes along with things change because you can have a best friend one day and then the next they are a complete stranger. I believe that all of us have experience with a situation where someone we were inseparable with became a complete stranger. I just recently experienced this...
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...African Americans. It can present with many different symptoms and can be very painful which makes it important for nurses to know what to look for when pain crisis occur. Sickle cell anemia is also important for a nurse to be educated on because there is a lot of patient education that goes with having sickle cell. There is no real cure for sickle cell because signs and symptoms can present differently in everyone that has it which makes educating patients on...
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...When Reality is Painful … One day a man called Andrew Laeddis was back home from work discovering that his wife had killed his three children. She was mentally ill and he did not get her help though. Afterwards, Andrew murdered his wife for killing their children. As a result of being unable to accept that he had murdered his wife and the fact that she killed their children, Andrew unconsciously invented another self, created another story in which someone else had committed his own crime. Moreover he denied having any children to escape from the reality of being a murderer and being responsible for the death of his family. At the end, Andrew became mentally ill himself for refusing to accept reality. This is the story of the Movie “Shutter Island” which is an example for what is called “Defense Mechanisms” and how they have a huge effect on our lives. Due to the fact that everyday people are faced with problems, stress, conflict and emotional pain, the mind needs to be protected against these painful feelings. As a result, “Defense Mechanisms” play an important role during these times in order to protect the mind from Stress and Anxiety by “unconsciously” denying reality and refusing it. Although Defense Mechanisms have positive side that they protect the individual against painful thoughts and experiences but using them without awareness can be destructive. “Defense Mechanisms” were researched by Sigmund Freud who’s an Austrian neurologist who became well known as “Father...
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