Handling Pain like a Superhero - or possibly your own worst villain

[brooklyn23]

Pain.
It's basically the number one sign that something isn't right.

Have you gotten so used to it, so used to masking it, that you can't even convey it right when you need to? I've been astonished to realize that my doctors do not comprehend the levels of pain I feel at my worst, or how debilitating it is for me. And maybe because I feel those horrible highs, I'm not so great at expressing my lows.

For example, I had some serious discomfort during my colonoscopy and my pill cam, but I think I held myself back from conveying how badly it hurt because it wasn't the worst of the worst. "Nothing major" went wrong during the pill cam, which is what I told him, but I still had periods of pain throughout the day.

What is your relationship with communicating pain?

 

[Wildmtnhoney]

I really really stink at it.

For horrible examples:

I found out this year that at some point in the past 10-20 years I broke my right knee cap. That is debilitating for "most" people, or so I hear. I guess I just iced it and went on with it. I know there are lots of times I've iced my knees. Can't pinpoint on that was worse than others.

(PLEASE don't read this last one next one if squeamish or pregnant, please! Just scroll to the *** but it explains my trouble with abdominal pain)




I had a c-section where the epidural FAILED and they didn't believe me. I had to plant my feet on the surgical table and try to get off it before they realized I truly wasn't numb anymore. They kept telling me I was feeling "pressure".






*****

So yeah. My "9" is the c-section. I don't even know what a "10" would be. I assume that means you pass out from the pain, but I've never done that. If I say "4" that means it REALLY HURTS NOW! But I don't think that translates. When I had cecal diverticulitis I said "6," and I had fluid in my abdomen at the time - which I guess is supposed to hurt "a lot"? I don't even know.

I just know the pain "scale" is a joke, and I can't ever decide if my pain is "burning, sharp, knife-like, dull, cramping...etc etc" well enough for them to make a guess at what is wrong either.

Gee, I guess this turned into a rant - sorry 'bout that!!

 

[brooklyn23]

I just know the pain "scale" is a joke, and I can't ever decide if my pain is "burning, sharp, knife-like, dull, cramping...etc etc" well enough for them to make a guess at what is wrong either.

I detest being asked what kind of pain I'm feeling. I have to go into some flowery literary explanation and let them figure it out. Usually my pain feels like lightbulbs, weird, I know, but that's how my brain processes it. Is it a tiny Christmas tree light, or is it a Hollywood search light?

 

[UnXmas]

One thing about the 1 - 10 pain scale is that it isn't primarily about conveying your pain level as compared to other patients or particular conditions, but to let doctors and nurses know if your situation is deteriorating. No one can ever truly know how much pain they are in compared to others; people say things like they have a high pain tolerance, but it may be they just don't have pain that severe (even when compared to someone with the same condition). But if a patient says their pain is a five then later says it's an eight, that's useful information for the doctor.

Though I also think it's unnecessary a lot of the time to ask about the severity of pain. You can tell when a person is in severe pain.

 

[UnXmas]

I detest being asked what kind of pain I'm feeling. I have to go into some flowery literary explanation and let them figure it out. Usually my pain feels like lightbulbs, weird, I know, but that's how my brain processes it. Is it a tiny Christmas tree light, or is it a Hollywood search light?

That seems a very good way of describing pain, at least to me it sugests a burning or sharp pain in specific places, and constant rather than cramps or waves of pain. Except that a searchlight suggests movement, and I guess lights can also flicker or flash, but if you made it a bit more precise it could be a really good way of communicating your pain.

 

[brooklyn23]

Maybe search light is wrong. Flood light maybe? I was talking about levels of brightness/pain. But yeah, constant and specific are what I'm going for. My flood light pain is baaad, I use that one when lower right side pain consumes my entire body throughout the abdomen, then my limbs and skin. But that only happens when I ovulate. :/ lucky me

 

[Wildmtnhoney]

Oh gosh, I really hope you don't think I was comparing my pain to anything other than my own pain

My issue is that I just don't know what a pain scale, for me, should be. I mean, they have the little happy to sad to crying faces for kids, and then there are the "joke" scales that my medical field friends are always sharing on FB (that go from, like a hangnail, to scary things). My dad tried to help me once - he said going from a 5 to a 10 is like the 2nd time you hit the same thumb with a hammer (ouchie!!) but is that accurate?

And the type of pain, for me - often I want to combine types that I don't think make sense. Like my constant LRQ pain is a constant, knife-like, radiating pain, unless you touch me, then it's sharp, too! Does that make any sort of sense?

 

[UnXmas]

I don't think it's necessarily wrong to compare pain with other people, just that it's not possible to ever know for certain if one person's 9 is the same as another person's 9.

 

[Marlena]

I hate the numbers. I've had several people tell me I have a high pain threshold and it all just confuses me. Or what is the diff. between a throb and an ache or some of the other stuff they ask. It is so difficult for all of us to have so much be so individual you can't come up with some sort of standard about anything. Soldier on, folks!

 

[Nancye50]

I'm thankful my new dr seems to be familiar with this type of pain issue. She can elicit a guarding response in my LRQ like a pro.
I think I got progressively worse over such a long period of time that I lost perspective. I've had to really get in better touch with my own body since diagnosis.

 

[shanna79]

I hate talking about pain. Absolutely hate it. I hate the sympathetic head tilts, accompanied with the "I could never go through what you go through", just as much as I hate the *You're totally batshit crazy* looks.

I had a resection and fistula repair 2.5 years ago. They began with several laproscropic incisions, and then had to operate via a midline incision. My pain pump didn't work for the first 16 hours after surgery. I lived. I barely remember it. How do you rate that kind of pain? How does a dull incessantly throbby ache compare to the stabby pain? They both hurt, and both make it hard to get through the day. How do you convey that you walk around in a *6* on the pain scale on a daily basis? And how do you even remember what a 4 feels like, or a 2? And if you can't relate to anything on the lower end of the pain scale, how can you even convey what you're feeling?

 

[CharlieB]

Personally I try and relay to them how it compares to the worst pain I've ever felt. Which was a cracked rib and a popped lung--that's my 10. I know not everyone will work like that, but I've found it helpful. Also I usually bring my fiance with me to the ER so he's been good about telling them that I don't usually complain until it's more than I can handle on my own.

I hope you can find your own way of communicating how you're feeling