Shellie Mayne

PAIN. A non discriminatory four letter word affecting the lives of people across the world regardless of their age, race, sex, status. Throughout the last 19 years of my nursing career in med surg, ortho, OB, home care, hospice, long term care and dialysis, I have witnessed the struggles of patients trying addictive narcotics with multiple side effects and damage to their liver and kidneys. Hearing the term “frequent flyer” and seeing the judgment is heartbreaking. I have seen the disappointments in my patients’ eyes when they are told that surgery is not an option due to other health concerns.

As part of my bachelor degree through the University of Iowa, I traveled to India and studied pain control in palliative care. Accompanied by local doctors and nurses, we hiked into the jungles to homes with dirt floors to care for patients in pain conversely, then on to the elite homes with marble stairs to care for patients with the same concern.

After training in Boston, I became a travel dialysis nurse in January of 2020 just as COVID caused our chaos. During my first assignment in Texas, alone and far from home, the experiences with COVID opened my eyes to a whole new form of pain in my patients and myself. Stress, anxiety, PTSD, etc. can all be factors. The next few years I traveled to dialysis units in Nebraska, Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Missouri, and Iowa, and became increasingly aware of how pain controls the lives and families throughout our nation.

I believe it’s time we take an alternative approach for control of pain, without side effects, and focus on pain relief, healing, prevention, quality of life and longevity.