The hardest thing to go through....

[Uniquely]

Is when a loved one is in agonizing pain and there's nothing that can be done about it.

My mother in law had a severe stroke in the brain stem at the rediculously young age of 52. It was the sort of thing that would have killed 99% of people, but because she was so young and so fit... she survived. She was left with no movement on her right side, and very little on her left. Her mental status is completely intact, but she is only able to speak a few words. Her swallow function was severely damaged, and she should be on a feeding tube, but she refuses it.... so even daily nurishment can be a life threatening event.

For the past couple of weeks she has been having severe muscle cramping all up and down her right side. Take that muscle cramp that you get from running without stretching, or stretching too hard when you first wake up.... then have it occuring in several muscles at the same time.... and reoccuring in wave after wave for hours at a time.

The doctors, nurses and us (the physical therapy dept at the nursing home she resides in) have tried everything we know, every drug and pain relief technique we know..... nothing's helping.

It's so hard to see her go through this. She lost everything two years ago with the stroke... her whole life really.... but she still always manages a smile and a laugh.... and now to see her going through this too is almost unbearable. I'm so pained for her and my wife both.