Editor's Blog Jun 07th 2012
BRING ON THE PAIN
Pain is a mere sensation that must be enjoyed, this is part of the mantra I repeat to myself when dealing with constant back pain.
Chronic pain is something that cannot be described nor shown to the medical profession and because of this, chancers will use the whole back pain deal to get a few day off work, as doctors will always err on the side of caution, giving people with real pain issues a bad name.
Those that do suffer from the real deal will have gone through the wringer when seeing a doctor. First there is the waiting on a steel chair, sometimes for an hour, sometimes more depending on how many hypochondriacs have arrived in front of you.
Then you go through the list of questions, my favourite being; on a scale of one to ten with one being a tight pinch and ten being part of your back having been chewed off by a tiger shark and your pissed up mate has poured vinegar in the wound, how much would you say it hurts?
Doctors must be seen to quantify pain and the use of the one to ten scale being the easiest one to supply data. The only thing is, that each individual experiences pain in different ways. I would say that I have a very high tolerance for pain, therefore my pain may be described as being whipped with the string of Spanish spicy sausage, and to the next guy it could be like a small rodent gnawing at his testicles while being beaten with fiery crowbar.
Now if you want to be taken seriously, never say ten. Anyone saying ten will be viewed by the doctor as someone who either wants to score some drugs, needs a couple of days off, or is a complete drama queen. Your pain is yours and yours alone. Who is to say that your tummy ache is less painful than my shoulder having been ripped out of its socket?
If you want to earn your doctors respect, tell him or her that it's a six, peaking to an eight when you ask me to touch my toes. I also tell them up front that I have no desire to go on a week’s holiday, all I want is for the pain to go away.
For those of us that know that doctors have a couple of tricks up their White sleeves to end the pain within twenty minutes, you can always give them a nudge in the right direction by asking for the medication to be administered via injection. There are no words that convey more horror to me than ‘you may feel a little prick’, when you got your pants around your ankles and your ass in the air.
Any fool can say ‘I will take the pain’. I have managed my own chronic pain for over eight years now and I know when enough is enough and head for the nearest hospital when my mobility is affected.
Not that prescription painkillers don’t come with their own dangers. Addiction and the possibility of over medicating yourself is a reality, sometimes with disastrous or even fatal consequences and a whole range of problems like loss of libido to liver damage. When in doubt go see a doctor, and if he or she does ask you a silly question just be truthful.
Ed.
