Matthew McEwen: A sewing needle changed his life

“I wish I could say I was injured in a football game or while saving a child from a burning building, but it was just a simple sewing needle.” So began Matthew McEwen’s experience with the chronic pain that stole 18 months of his life before releasing him from its grasp.

The sewing needle—dropped and lost in the carpet—became lodged in his calf muscle as Matthew, then in Grade 9, lay on the floor of his parent’s living room. It was removed with routine surgery and his leg seemed to heal with no problems.

Two years later, the pain began. The constant, dull ache was soon joined by a sharp stabbing pain that meant daily trips to the emergency room. Countless tests by doctors found no answers. Finally, a neurologist determined that his nerve had never healed properly and he underwent a second surgery.

“I was pain free…for two weeks. Then it was back,” recalls Matthew. “I was in the hospital every night, missing hours of school. The doctors were starting to question if it was only in my mind.” In this desperate state, Matthew found his way to the Ottawa Hospital Pain Clinic at the General Campus.

There, he was placed on a drug therapy that allowed him to get back to his daily life. Gradually, this therapy was cut back until he was pain- and drug-free.

“They gave me my life back,” says Matthew, who is now a minister in Bracebridge. “During one of my last visits to the pain clinic, a woman sitting beside me in the waiting room, after finding out I was pain-free, said to me: ‘Tell me what it’s like to run through the summer rain.’ Pain had robbed her of the simple delight of running in the rain—something most people find a nuisance,” he notes. “This really illustrates how chronic pain destroys your life. And it shows how important the pain clinic is in this community. It is a vital resource for people in desperate need of pain relief.”

To find out how you can support the new Ottawa Hospital Pain Clinic, call 613-761-4295.