Sunday, April 12, 2009

Blather

The thing about pain is that everyone has his or her own tolerance for it; something one person does not feel will make another person feel as though they were dying. Have you ever had a medical procedure done and though the staff and doctor said it would only be uncomfortable and it hurts you a lot? Or they might tell you that ibuprofen might handle the pain, but when the pain hits, and you take the ibuprofen you realize it is not cutting the pain? And then you start screaming for Vicodin? Before I go any further, I admit it, I am a wimp about pain, and I hate it when my hips hurt (not that often) or my legs ache, but normally the Advil will ease the pain for it not to be a problem.

Thursday I had to go to the hospital to have some tests done and of, I took my little knitting with me. Like a moron, I took socks I had just started the 5 needles that I am using to knit the socks, I should have just left them at home. The staff kept me so busy filling out forms and completing information, I never even picked them, which is a good thing since after the first procedure I was so wasted I wouldn’t have known what end was up or which needle to knit with.

When I woke up from the first procedure, I told the nurse my hip hurt a lot, so she pushed some pain meds into the IV. My eyes started spinning in my head, the pain left my hip, and my gums started flapping. I started talking and sleeping at the same time, WOW, better living through chemicals! Lolol I did ask the nurse if it was a truth serum (AKA Harry Potter), because I was talking about things I would never talk about normally; she said it was a side effect of the drug she gave me, I just said, “oh well” and kept on talking. I am glad I did not try to use the 5 dpn’s, as I would have had a huge mess.

After we got home, I realized that the pain meds had worn off and my hip was really hurting again. I took the prescribed Advil, and waited, after an hour I decide the pain was not easing at all; in fact, it was worse. Finally, DD2 found the good stuff and I was able to sleep the sleep of the just.

I know that people have had that particular test while awake, but I don’t know how they stood it unless they were tied down, the after affects were bad enough, I probably would have passed out if I had been awake. I guess this is a good lesson in pain tolerance for me. :-)

Please leave me a comment and tell me about your experiences with pain just so I know how to cope in the future when someone tells me it will be uncomfortable.

Happy Easter to those of you who celebrate it and I hope everyone's weekend is wonderful!

8 comments:

sheep#100 said...

I think lots of things factor in to how much something hurts including one's current underlying levels of health and stress.

And, according to Number Guy, I'm a pain wuss. Of course, he has the nerve endings and pain threshold of a rock so who is he to judge? I'm sensitive.

But I also handled post-partum pain strictly on garden variety Tylenol.

Feel better and Happy Easter.

Renna said...

Being one with a very low pain tolerance, I can empathize with you. I have a friend who won't be put out for anything. She undergoes most simple procedures with no anesthetic at all, the kind of procedures that would probably just make my heart stop from the pain. I don't get it. There must be something wired differently in our brains. Me, I need serious pain meds, and yet, they make me so nauseous that I find myself questioning, which is worse, the pain or the nausea. I hate throwing up!

Tally Knits said...

I can't help much. I have a very high tolerance to pain. At most, I usually feel uncomfortable when others are cringing/crying. When things really do hurt, I just think of it as nothing more than a sense... the sense of touch which is completely normal and no big deal. And that it is only making me stronger if I just deal with it (ok, not always true, but I tell myself that anyway).

I only take pain relievers under extreme circumstances. I do have a lot of nerve damage from injuries/accidents, so this might be a reason for my high tolerance. Sorry I'm not much help and hope you start feeling better and painfree!

rita said...

Pain Wuss here. Part of my problem is that I'm allergic to advil and have been told not to take aspirin or NSAIDS because I had a stomach bleed (lost 4 pints) a couple of years ago. Tylenol doesn't seem to do any good at all; the others worked well, but I can't use them.

So, for me, Percocet or Darvocet or Vicodan. Loooooooovvvvvveeeee them. And morphine, I love that too. Or whatever it is that they give you after surgery. I'm all for it.

Aunt Kathy said...

Ah Georgi... Pain...there's the question of the century. I have a high tolerance for pain. I had carpal tunnel in BOTH hands and I waited 5 years to see the DR, he wondered how I even stayed conscious, lol. If I tell you I am in pain it's BAD. Hence Easter Sunday and my trip to the ER. Even the morphine they gave me didn't help. It's OK to not want to feel pain... nothing wrong with that my friend, nothing at all

Darcys Knotty Knitter said...

Honestly I'm a wimp and take a pain killer before a procedure of any kind.Hugs Darcy

Unknown said...

I don't know about real pain, but my hands and joints ache so frequently that I tend to just ignore it at much as possible. Especially if I'm in the middle of a project I just can't put down.

I'm kind of at the point where I'm wondering if I'm actually feeling that much discomfort or if I'm just turning into a hypochondriac...

vickie said...

yes i had a biopsy done one my breast when i was 3 months pregnant and they said oh afterwards the pain wont be bad. yeah right hurt so horrible.