UNDERSTANDING AND MANAGING PAIN
As humans we experience pain from the day we are born until it is time for curtains.
We must always remember that like everything in life,yesterday’s pain is just a memory and that we cannot suffer from it. So why
fret about pain.
Of
course every individual has a different threshold for pain. It is not uncommon
for sportsmen to endure severe pain even broken shoulders and hands and
continue to finish the game. On the other end of the spectrum are people who
cannot accept any pain at all.
As
children they probably used pain as an excuse to get what they wanted and this
continues into adult age.
What
we need here is to understand pain and figure out how to deal with it.
Pain
is caused by injury to tissues or disease of some nature.
There are different
types of pain like throbbing pain from headaches, boils and toothaches,
stabbing pain can be in stomach and bowels, cutting off blood supply to a limb
or an organ can cause continuous pain,
damage to skin by heat or chemicals can cause burning pain and muscle
spasms and cramps can cause a continuous pain.
Pain
is nothing other than a signal sent by the brain to that part of the body in
trouble, thus warning us to stop whatever we are doing and give that part of
the body a rest. Pain is also a warning signal allowing us to recognize the
presence of disease. Pain can also be imaginary such as feeling the pain in the
toe of an amputated leg.
If
we understand this then we can exercise “MIND over BODY” by telling ourselve’s
, well pain I am not going to remember you tomorrow.
Self
confidence (or pig headedness as in my case), concentration on something that
is much more important to you in your life than sitting and worrying about
pain, excitement and entertainment such as a show or a gripping movie all takes
our minds concentration away from the part of the body in pain. In other words
we should distract the brain.
Not
to forget, alcohol, painkillers, anaesthetics and acupuncture can also give
short term relief.
There
are people who cannot even tolerate pain from a needle but then I have my wife
who has been an insulin dependent diabetic since she was thirteen who takes
four injections a day and tests her blood with needle pricks six times a day to
keep the blood sugars under control.
She
definitely feels the pain but it is the lesser of two evils and has no choice. When
we first met she used to constantly complain about the needles and pin pricks
and looked
for sympathy and pity and I am confident I have talked her out of it by telling
her again and again that it is only a short term sensation and then it will be
forgotten. It is just the brain telling the body that there is some foreign
body piercing the skin like for example a thorn from a rose bush, which we
should protect the body from.
Except for the first week in hospital where the doctors
administered pain killers and sedatives to give relief from non stop hiccuping,
I can confidently say I have stayed away from pain killers. Once we get started
on painkillers we become dependent on the drug and reach out for one at the
least pain sensation.
So
my friends, we in this group who suffer from pain should try and increase
our pain threshold by enduring it and learning to live with it instead of
running to the medicine cupboard every time. Of course if the pain is
intolerable and excruciating please seek medical advice.
Remember
every tablet we swallow does what it is supposed to do but also has a whole lot
of side effects that we do not know about and will show up after long periods of use or should I say abuse?.
For
example my wife suffered from asthma when she was young and was administered an
approved drug for a long period. Research later proved that this drug was
responsible for early onset of diabetes. Remember if you read my earlier note
this morning I am taking Hydrea (Hydro
urea) that kills the platelets in the blood knowing pretty well that in the
long term it can cause blood cancer.
I keep pressuring my haematologist to drop
the dosage, as this is similar to chemotherapy in a mild form only to find that
my platelet count starts creeping up. There is no explanation for why the
Platelet count goes up. It is called primary essential thrombocytosis, similar
to essential hypertension which cannot be explained medically..
Now
if you are wondering why this write up about pain, I am trying to respond to
Gay’s post complaining about pain.
I
suffer from severe back pain every night and can sleep only for may be four
hours at a stretch. I am not sure if the pain is stroke releated. I get off the
bed and sleep sitting up on a couch and the pain sensation is lesser. And of
course I do my stretches and hanging off
monkey bars (door heads) every morning and the pain goes away. So it must
be just muscular pain.
The
funny thing about this as most of you VAD sufferers would appreciate (Andrea
definitely does) is that the stupid pain is felt only on one side of my back.
The left side starts to burn instead. Never ever dreamt that I would have a
back that would have pain on one side and burn on the other half. There seems
to be no choice it is either the frying pan or the knife.
RamboAUS
