A permanent tube was inserted into Donalon's lung to routinely drain the infection. Another tube sends a low dose of morphine into the base of his spine every three minutes. Now, I can breathe properly. And the quality of life has completely changed. I mean, I was afraid to even go to the toilet without an oxygen bottle.
Life is tolerable.
Life's worth living. And that's exactly what palliative medicine aims to do, says Dr. Nigel Sykes, help patients like Mick Donalon regain some control over their lives. Now, if the only thing you see yourself as doing is administering certain scientific techniques to a patient, that may be true. But, if you are also capable of seeing a patient as a living, thinking, feeling human being, there is always something else you can do. In fact, Sykes says, he and the other palliative care physicians he works with hardly ever run out of ideas about how to control pain, or about how to provide patients with greater comfort.