Pain - how do you cope ???? page 5

[JoanieL]

A friend who went to veterinary school told me that the biggest fainting day is the day they dissect an eye.

As to those who think pain is a purely mind over matter thing, may I recommend actually looking up the research over just assuming you're tough and others aren't. There are actually some real measured reasons some people feel pain more than others. The whole "opinion as fact" thing is well... opinion as fact.

That said, I broke my wrist and neither the break nor the setting of it hurt very much. OTOH, I won't get prof'l manicures because my cuticles are sensitive. Go figure.

[Crabbcakes]

Has any one else had shingles? I took all the meds they'd give me. It's a very nasty deep nerve pain. I'm kind of a wimp when it comes to headaches but I had a home birth so under some circumstances I'm able to tolerate pain.

Hubby had shingles. He is the opposite of me - can handle a helluva lot more pain than I can.... Well, he took all the dope the docs would give him, too.

[Crabbcakes]

Oh the shock of it all for a kid !!!!! our eldest daughter fainted when we went to see a friend in hospital. he had cut his thumb off with a circular saw - which she seemed fine with, but when the nurse came and popped a wee leech on the end - boomfah - over she went !!!!

I like that little bit of onomatopoeia - "boomfah". I can almost hear it.

Here's one - a year ago hubby had surgery to correct an umbilical hernia that had gotten pretty bad. Surgery went splendidly, but he came home with two drainage holes, one on each side of his belly button. Thick, long, blue sponges stuck out what looked like two new belly buttons. A couple of days into his recovery at home, I was to pull them out - surgeon's instructions. Normally I have a really strong stomach, even if I do have a low pain tolerance, so I check the whole thing out, gather my supplies, and start. Well, those sponges just stretched, and stretched, stretched... and by the time I got the second one unstuck and out, my vision was blurry around the edges and I just made it into the bathroom to stick my arms/wrists under icy tap water before I nearly went over. I wasn't hurting hubby - he said so. I just couldn't take it anymore. Huh.

[jammies]

I think that it really does depend on the type of pain. I have severe RA and was in pretty intense pain for several years before getting things under control. My doctor often suggested pain meds for me, but I was always able to decline and could use mindfulness/acceptance to deal with the pain (although sleep was often impossible). I have also had a few gallbladder attacks that were painful, but manageable without meds.

I have also had kidney stones and one that got stuck in a way that caused intense bladder spasms for two months along with searing pain. I could tolerate the kidney stone pain for maybe an hour or two maximum without pain meds. I would try to convince my brain that nothing was wrong and to just accept the pain, but I couldn't do it. The pain would get so severe that I was vomiting.

Sometimes I have to laugh though, if I am getting some waxing or threading done. Sometimes getting those tiny little lip hair pulled out just annoys the crap out of me and I wonder how I survived such horrible pain for so long if a little threading is getting to me