When I can't, We can.

Since I had struggled with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis all of my life, in 2000, when I needed another hip replacement, I decided not to have general anesthesia. I was sick of being sick after surgery. I had a spinal block. The surgery became very complicated and the spinal wore off. The team offered to put me under for the remaining time in surgery. They said they could not give me enough narcotics to keep me out of horrible pain. I decided to stay awake with minimal IV meds. I asked the anesthesiologist to chant native american chants and to sing \"Amazing Grace\" with me. He had been raised Christian but had not been back to church in years. The nurses concurred. As the surgeon worked, I taught them all native chants and we all sang \"Amazing Grace\". The surgery continued, not for the hour expected, but for 3 more hours. Whenever the pain became excruciating, we chanted and sang and miracle of miracles, somehow the pain was lifted from me. I never suffered, except when we stopped chanting and singing. Later, in recovery, people from throughout the hospital staff, including the psychiatric and the reiki teams, came to visit me and to ask me how I was able to do that. I told them that I didn't do it; I didn't know how to do it: when we all worked together, Something More intervened on my behalf.

postscript: The anesthesiologist and nurses all went back to their forsaken religions thereafter.