29 Apr 2009 |
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| Pain, Pain, Go Away
In the very beginning- before Nana Hauwa ate the forbidden fruit in the garden- there was no pain. And it was good. But not long enough for Nana Hauwa to enjoy a painless delivery at the very first labour case in obedience of the passage in Genesis: I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception, in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children. Buddhism, not very differently from that of Judeo-Christianity belief, called pain the outcome of sin. Islam teaches that the world is a sinful painful place for the believer and it is in the hereafter that there will be no pains. Of pains, traditional African belief systems offer diverse opinions: from propitiatory purgation to the black magician trying new potions on adversaries, from ominous heraldry to purely physical afflictions. Pain sensation is initiated by a series of potentially harmful stimuli mediated by the free sensory nerve endings through a pathway in the nerve trunks and spinal cord, ending in the cortical and subcortical centres in the brain. It is a defensive mechanism for the organism: something is going or would go wrong here, please take care of me. Little wonder Sherrington the renowned physiologist defined pain as the ‘psychical adjunct of an imperative protective reflex’. Antiphanes [BC388-311] thought of all pains as one malady with many names. And Philip Sydney famously said of pains: the scourge of life, and death’s extreme disgrace, the smoke of hell - that monster called Pain. While there are rainbows of reasons behind pain, virtually everyone is agreed that it is a bitter experience better forgotten soonest. Pain is no respecter of age, status, creed, race or gender. John Milton in Paradise Lost reflected his personal experience on pains calling it ‘a perfect misery, the worst of all evils; and excessive [pain] overturns all patience. Many a Beethoven’s masterpieces went unrecorded as a result of his terrible gallstone colic; the pitiable fate of Napoleon at Waterloo was partly decided by his painful piles and gastritis; and nearer home, Babangida’s radiculopathy was a national issue while Daniel ‘the bull’Amokachi’s preterm retirement from active football was partly a result of his nagging thigh injury. How colourfully enriched the world would have been without pains is left to the imagination. Oh, how happy everyone would be without the monster! Different types of pains there are. Chronic pains are long term while acute is of short duration; mild, moderate and severe are subjective degrees of the seriousness. Like a mangled snake in throes of death with spasmodic episodes of excruciating pains, we can also have acute-on-chronic pain. Pain can be self-inflicted or a result of assault. It can be musculoskeletal if it arises and is localized in the bones and muscles; or neuropathic if it is due to degenerative changes in the nerves. Complex pains are an amalgam. Pains can be in the mind or the body, and as Publilius Syrus noted: the pain of the mind is worse than the pain of the body. Pain limits activity, progress and the joy of living. As science is yet to devise an objective means of measuring the presence or absence or severity of pain on a scale, pains can also be phantom [as in phantom coups]. The different backgrounds to interpretations of pains have naturally yielded ground to the remedies. There is the concept of Divine Healing through the laying of hands which arose with the birth of Christianity and the New Testament. This method is gaining increased followership among all strata of the society not only for pains but all maladies of life including poverty and infertility. And the clergy is the richer and happier for it all at the expense of the laity! Islamic clerics sanction stoicism, qadar [destiny] and rest their case in inna lillah wa inna ilaehi rajiuna – from Allah we come and to Him shall be our return though we may also note the brilliant contributions of Islamic scholars like Avicenna and Maimonides to the development of medicine as a discipline. Traditionalists offer sacrifice, propitiations, incantations, herbs and scarifications while Far East religions recommend fasting, alcohol, acupuncture, poppy seeds, coca leaves, meditation and others. On the other side of the divide, medical science through an intimidating armamentarium in anesthesiology offers the gold standard in pain management. But God himself was the first anesthetist as seen in the verse: And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof. Years of exhaustive collaboration of physicists, physiologists, dentists, surgeons, and even barbers with occasional disruption by the Church [which with the benefit of hindsight was a blessing] have taken us to the acme of anesthesia. We now have epidural analgesia, inhalational anesthesia, acupuncture, hypnotherapy etc. One of the severest forms of pains is that of labour; it is every woman’s unavoidable nightmare but in a species of the horse fish, it is the male carries the pregnancy while the female feeds fat. This is every woman’s dream. With modern anesthesia, painless delivery is a routine obstetrics procedure and some women even champion the too posh to push school of delivery. TPTP is after Victoria “Posh” Beckham of the Spice Girls fame who introduced celebrity into elective CS. So where does Nigeria come into the picture? Nigeria, the beautiful woman of any man’s dream, has suffered all and every forms of pains but in summary her pains can be classed as severe, chronic, acute-on-chronic, complex pains that are self-inflicted but mainly a result of serial assault that is still ongoing. She has been put in the family way, carrying the fetus dubiously named “democracy”, undergoing an unprecedented labour pains yet the gang rape continues. How inhuman! These leaders surely have no conscience, no shame. She is gravida 12 para 2 + 9 (none alive!). She has had several stillbirths some on the brink of death. The rampaging rapists, treasury looters, grave robbers, conmen executhieves Nigeria has been unfortunate to forcefully marry [cohabit with might be more appropriate] are our albatross. The pillage started, even before she came of age, from the colonialists who though Brutishly tender, deflowered and then hawked her to the wrong suitor to set the stage for future assault. Ever since, she has been raped day and night in hallowed chambers and lowly places, forced into servitude, physically assaulted, dehumanized and spat upon every day of her life. And the pains, oh the excruciating pains, have been unbearable even the unborn baby can feel. Just a few days ago in Ekiti, another round of pillage, with help from the highest authority in the land, was beamed live to all who care to watch. Poor Nigeria, my beautiful Nigeria yet she still remains so beautifully sweet, homely, naturally endowed with the right curves in the right places, refreshingly dark with a glowing sheen, snow-white well set dentition, tall, majestic in gait, graceful in her walk, so alluring the anatomy is out of this world; accommodative, blissful, kind, inviting; the sign of painful deprivation during the locust years only showing in the sagging skin, the scars, the tattered skirts and faded gown. Years ago in the elementary school, we learnt the rhyme with the above title. Almost three decades after kindergarten, the pain is even worse. It has refused to go! Where then is the magic of modern anesthesia? When and how will the pains go? The success of modern anesthesiology is based on the sanctity, good quality and preservation of human life. Though we might blame Gardner Quincy Colton for being a little over-enthusiastic in getting a financial reward by keeping his anesthetic formula secret; yet profit motive, selfishness and sundry were generally not in the picture. In other words, altruism is the key. If we all show altruism, love and sacrifice for the motherland, if we treasure the sanctity and preservation of human life, the pains may abate and gradually ease off. By taking Nigeria with quixotic appeal as the beautiful bride, a sister, a mother, a widow, a lover, a defenseless harmless maiden; we may start the process of healing the pains. I call my wife ‘honey’, and incidentally, Nigeria is the land overflowing with honey and milk. I don’t beat my wife neither do I abuse her; I love my mother and I will forever hate a man that treats any of my sisters harshly and I am sure most men will even go a step further. That is where the connection lies. See Nigeria as the helpless woman that should be loved unconditionally as noted in James2:10 - whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. A hadith quoted Mohammad [pbuh] as exhorting a questioner to take tender loving care of the mother three times over and above the father. Is this not akin to that of the American president who famously urged his countrymen not to ask of what the country can offer them but what each could do for the motherland? Today the USA is a model for most countries because the love for country is strong and enduring. .
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