Jack is serving life without parole, and has terminal cancer. Throughout my incarceration, Jack was a positive influence. He encouraged me to keep writing, to enter short-story competitions, and we proofread each other’s chapters. Jack is seeking pen pals, so anyone interested please email me at attwood.shaun@hotmail.co.uk for his details.
It has been a rough go this last few
months or so. I have had two rather nasty bouts where my pain has gone off the
scale. The first was the last week in May. I had got up at my usual time of 4
AM to catch the BBC broadcast of world news, and get ready for work, when the
usual pain began to escalate rapidly. In a matter of just a few minutes I was
in absolute agony. It felt like some demented animal was trying to claw its way
out of my body.
The officer came through to do the 4 AM headcount
and saw me. He then activated an ICS emergency and requested a medical turnout.
By the time medical showed up, I was drenched in sweat, my breathing was rapid
and shallow, and I was unable to focus or respond to the most general of questions.
Medical, then loaded me in the van and
carted me off to the HUB, where they accessed my chemo port and began pushing
IV solutions of various drugs. They drew a gallon or so of blood (well it felt
like a gallon considering how many vials they took) and put a rush on the results
so that they could better understand how to treat me.
The rush results were returned
approximately 10 hours later. During that time, they continued to force the
various generic IV solutions into me. Somewhere around hour six, the pain began
to recede and eventually it re-established itself in its usual area and level. When
my test results did return the doctor stated that “my numbers were wonky, but
they did not explain why I was experiencing such severe pain.”
Because my pain had return to its usual
level, Medical decided to send me back to the yard and follow up with the
assigned nurse practitioner (who earlier cancelled my painkillers) for further
testing.
Shaun Attwood
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