Chronic Pain vs. Childbirth
I've written quite a bit about pain on this blog, and I always enjoy the comments and personal anecdotes of my contributors, but I have noticed an occasional comparison that strikes me as a bit of a stretch.
When a chronic pain patient really wants to impress me with her supernatural pain tolerance, she will occasionally state that her natural childbirth (for some reason these women always have their babies naturally) was nothing in comparison to the pain of her ______ (insert chronic pain syndrome of choice here).
And furthermore, the baby always seems to be of above-average weight - no 5 pound preemies for these stalwarts. I imagine that the labor was exceptionally long as well, and that the only analgesia required was a moist towel across the forehead and some soothing words from the hubby.
Now I'm certain that I've witnessed far fewer childbirths than some of my readers, but the ones I've seen looked pretty uncomfortable, especially the primigravidas. I guess it's a good thing that these exceptionally painful syndromes tend to strike people with such hardy pain tolerances, because if the pain is that much worse than childbirth, then a normal person probably couldn't handle it.
Just saying.
When a chronic pain patient really wants to impress me with her supernatural pain tolerance, she will occasionally state that her natural childbirth (for some reason these women always have their babies naturally) was nothing in comparison to the pain of her ______ (insert chronic pain syndrome of choice here).
And furthermore, the baby always seems to be of above-average weight - no 5 pound preemies for these stalwarts. I imagine that the labor was exceptionally long as well, and that the only analgesia required was a moist towel across the forehead and some soothing words from the hubby.
Now I'm certain that I've witnessed far fewer childbirths than some of my readers, but the ones I've seen looked pretty uncomfortable, especially the primigravidas. I guess it's a good thing that these exceptionally painful syndromes tend to strike people with such hardy pain tolerances, because if the pain is that much worse than childbirth, then a normal person probably couldn't handle it.
Just saying.
Labels: pain, perception
posted by scalpel at 5:11 PM
34 Comments:
And they walked 40 miles to school in waist deep snow up hill both ways . . . .
My ex wanted to have a drug-free child birth. Not something I encouraged. After a couple of hours of Pitocin she mentioned that she had reconsidered her position. My ex is one of the toughest people I know (not just for putting up with me).
I do not take the pain of child birth lightly. I do not take any patient's complaint of pain lightly.
I do try to put the pain into perspective, since pain is one thing that varies significantly from patient to patient. Even the response to opioids varies significantly among patients who haves no opioid tolerance. When you start treating the opioid tolerant patient, the variation in effect is that much larger.
There are some kinds of pain that will put me on the floor crying. There are other kind of pain, that have almost no effect on me, even though the same pain will be extreme for someone else. Pain tolerance is affected by all sorts of things.
Making a decision about the appropriate treatment for a patient's pain involves putting everything into perspective, not just the words coming out of the patient's mouth.
Drug abusers/seekers tend to be very manipulative and will tell you whatever they think will get you to give them what they want. They will threaten, play on your sympathy, and lie. One of the more devious things is to make accusations of discrimination on the basis of whatever difference there may be between you and the patient - race, gender, financial status, age, . . . . Those using the fact that you could not have experienced child birth yourself, are attempting to do the same thing. They are insulting other mothers at the same time. And this is assuming that they aren't G0P0.
You seem as if you are pretty good at differentiating pain appropriately and treating pain appropriately.
Present pain always seems worse than past pain. I had chronic pain for 30 years from an untreated slipped femoral capital epiphesis that got pretty severe toward the end. Now that I have a spiffy titanium hip I can't even remember what the bad hip felt like.
I reckon our ability to forget pain is a blessing.
As to labor, I had one ridiculously easy labor (the first one) and one rather unpleasant labor. For which the fricking midwife (in hospital, mind you, my insurance insisted on midwives for uncomplicated pregnancies) graciously gave me 10 ml of demerol.
Here's my personal pain scale:
Bad labor with fascist hippy midwife: 9
Gallbladder attack with inflamed liver and pancreas: 9
Easy labor: 5
Bad hip: 2 at age 15, 7 by age 40.
That's not much for 48 years on the planet. We live in good times.
Oh my word. As someone who has been in labor recently, I have to say, if I ever said, "natural child birth was nothing compared to this" I would be lying because if I was in worse pain than I was while in labor I wouldn't be able to speak. I would be sobbing.
And I didn't even make it to the delivery part. I got an epidural. I love the anesthesiologist so much.
Although one thing to keep in mind... child brith doesn't last weeks and weeks without relenting.
I know with my headaches the pain that I had 24/7 for a year was only a 2 sometimes a 3 on the pain scale. The multiple attacks that came daily were much worse (7-8) but they always eventually went away.
I think that the unrelenting nature of chronic pain makes it seem much worse. When something is causing pain all the time I think it moves up on the pain scale a bit because they body can't tolerate the pain anymore. However when the pain is there for a limited time and then goes away the body has a chance to recover.
Thats just my crazy idea as to why some may make the natural birth claim. Unless they are just a drug seeker... then they are full of BS! :) My theory goes along the basis that this person really does have chronic pain.
I love when people say "I usually have a VERY high pain threshold" or " I can REALLY take pain - so this has got to be REALLY REALLY bad!" Whatever.
the ones I've seen looked pretty uncomfortable
This is a little off-topic, but I never tire of reading this hilarious post about natural childbirth. The writer was a 4th year medical student when writing this. I particularly get a kick out of the last 2 paragraphs.
Note the natural childbirth advocates in the comments gain-saying his experience. Heh.
I think perhaps my chronic back pain (I have scoliosis) had something to do with my ability to "deal" with nonmedicated labor/childbirth.
With my eldest daughter I went pain-med free (with Pitocin) until I had to be prepped for my c-section. Had a nurse ask me if I felt the contractions, in fact, and I don't think she believed me when I told her I did, and they hurt like hell. Middle daughter was an immediate c-section (two footling breeches) once my water broke, the pain was never more than a mild ache.
Youngest daughter was sunny side up and I labored nearly two days with her. I would have killed for that to have been merely the level of my chronic pain. I've never gone to the hospital specifically to beg for pain medication for my back--and it sometimes hurts so much I am nearly bed-ridden--but my planned homebirth went out the window so I could get some damned narcotics. Of course, as I told them that a needle was getting near my back only if I'd die otherwise, it still hurt like hell after I got the meds.
The pain with my miscarriage was damn near as bad as with the childbirth.
Nope, chronic pain's got nothing on childbirth.
I wonder why we don't see too many advocates for "natural" incision and drainage procedures or laceration repairs. After all, that's how they did it in the old days.
Here, bite on this towel.
"Natural" incision and drainage? Just the thought of that hurts, and I speak from experience! At the time I originally showed up at the surgeon's office the abscess hadn't opened up yet, and he nicely proceeded to just rip the top right off it to see what was inside...without the benefit of any sort of analgesia/anesthesia whatsoever. I narrowly missed jumping off the table and slapping the hell out of him. He was a nice guy, but...that process hurt like hell! (I'd suggest a 6, but at least it was only momentary...) At least when they finally did go the I & D route, I was under conscious sedation with local...didn't want to be anywhere near the process; the anxiety would have gotten the best of me since I couldn't actually watch & distract myself that way! (Yes, I know, I'm warped. But that wannabe surgeon doesn't go away, LOL!)
there are different kinds of pain, and people have different tolerances for them.
I can tune out a lot of pain at the time it is being inflicted- ie walking miles on a sprain, carrying things until my hands won't open, etc. I did the non-medicated birth thing with all my kids. I did need pitocin with my second, but I still refused pain medications. Frankly, I was more afraid of the medications than of pain.
This is because I had found that the side effects from the narcotics were worse than the pain after dental surgery.
However, when I had my tonsils out I found them useful- they allowed me to sleep. Same drugs, my body responded differently for whatever reason.
Worst pain? that would be the night I was lying on the bathroom floor downstairs. The ER wasn't an option in part because I couldn't move enough to get to the bottom of the stairs to call my husband (upstairs asleep) and even if I had gotten to the bottom of the stairs I don't think I was capable of making enough noise at that point. I think I fell asleep at some point and when I woke up the pain wasn't as bad. I have no idea what caused it, and it never happened again.
Random pain is worse than labor because 1) generally it's more constant- labor pain comes and goes in predictable episodes and you can catch your breath in between and follow the rhythm 2) I had no idea when it would ever end, whether it would get any worse- even if I couldn't imagine anything worse 3) There is no happy ending (ie baby) from random pain.
I also have some mild chronic pain and get migraines. The same migraine which I would endure in a dark room when pregnant I will take medication for now. The difference? motivation. Does that make me more of a wimp now? I think it points to the motivating factors that are important.
So, yes, it is possible that someone with a high tolerance for pain under SOME circumstances may find lesser or equal pain more difficult to endure.
If I were to appear in your ER and say that I have a high pain tolerance, have had natural childbirth etc, I would hope that you would understand that the pain I am experiencing is severe, that if properly motivated I minimize medications, and that pain itself does not inherently bother me, but some quality about this pain is unknown and therefore scares me.
I think I'm torn by this post. On the one hand I find it a little bit sad that you would take such comments not just with skepticism, but with cynicism. On the other hand i know that there are folks who think they handle pain well when they really don't and I am sure it is a challenge to tell the difference.
That's it. I'm not going natural with this kid...
I do have migraines, fibro and CFS though...so maybe it wouldn't be so bad.
I'm kidding.
I have given birth naturally with pitocin for hours on end. Was it pleasant? No.
But nothing hurt more than the time I got 2 abcesses one next to the other for a bad tooth.
I have given birth four times, and had one c-section, for a total of five babies.
The first one weighed 9 pounds 4 ounces. I asked for an epidural at 3 cm, and I literally slept through most of the labor. I woke up just in time to push (for less than 10 minutes). The labor was painful early, then completely without sensation. At the end there was one big "ouch" and it was over. It was wonderful. Epidurals are marvelous!
The second one wasn't quite so easy. He weighed 11 pounds, 1/2 ounce. I asked for and received an epidural at 3 cm. It numbed part of my abdomen and concentrated all the sensation into one incredible, indescribable, agonizingly painful 'hot spot'. It turns out that, marvelous as they can be, epidurals truly suck when they don't work as expected. The doctor wouldn't let me roll to the other side as there was a problem with the baby's heartbeat. Shoulder dystocia, too -- had a bevy of nurses applying fundal pressure while tying me in a pretzel on the delivery table. It was not pretty and it hurt like hell and whoever said you forget intense pain is lying. I remember every moment of that labor and hope never to feel anything like it ever again. It hurt.
Baby number three, another 9-pounder, was born at home. No medications. It hurt a little, not badly -- I slept through until I was at 5 or 6 cm, woke up and got in a warm tub, got out of the tub in time to deliver. The only pain I really felt was during the delivery itself. Like the first, one big 'ouch' and it was over.
Baby number four was even better. Again, homebirth, no medications whatsoever. I felt pressure off and on all day, knew I was in labor, believed I was simply having Braxton-Hicks or a prolonged first stage because the contractions were simply pressure without pain. Finally called the midwife in the afternoon to just come look at me. I'd been playing cards with my mom on the kitchen table when the midwife arrived, and I put down my hand to walk to my bedroom for the midwife to do her exam. Literally ten minutes later, I walked out again carrying the baby in my arms instead of in my belly. My dad very nearly fell off his chair. :D The baby weighed 10 pounds, and I felt no pain whatsoever at any point during the labor -- only the intense sensation of delivery itself, which was resolved with literally a single push. No tears, no trauma, no pain. Just pressure.
Baby number five arrived via emergency c-section following a partially ruptured placenta previa. Three weeks before due date, I woke up in a puddle of blood, with a hard-to-describe feeling that there would be extreme pain if I rolled over from where I was lying. So I didn't move -- just called my husband who called the ambulance crew who transported me straight to an operating room where my son was lifted out of my body barely moments after spinal anesthesia began to take effect. I felt the first prick of the knife, then a bunch of tugging and pressure. The baby weighed 8 1/2 pounds and the recovery was pure hell. But he lived and I lived and I've never been so grateful for modern medicine.
Now, I suppose if I showed up at your hospital in severe pain, and told you that I think I have a higher tolerance for pain than the average woman, and that my gallbladder pain actualy hurt more than delivering my 10-pound son at home and without anesthesia, you'd think I was either a drug seeker or a liar -- or both. But it would be the simple truth, neither more nor less.
I love reading medical blogs. But I hate the arrogance I get from some of these posts, and I don't much like wondering what my doctor is really thinking when I need his expertise. (Does he think I'm a liar? A drug-seeker? A drain on the system? A fool? ... probably all of those things, if medical blogs are anything to go by.)
After 3 or 4 deliveries, they are often sort of like this. Point conceded, but perhaps a comparison to your second delivery would be more appropriate.
Still, you shouldn't find many docs second-guessing you about gallbladder pain.
I had a wonderful in-hospital "natural" childbirth two months ago (I use quotes because I happily accepted the antibiotics to help prevent GBS infection, the intermittent monitoring to make sure my daughter and I were both tolerating labor, etc.). There certainly was pain involved, but there were no raised voices and I found it quite a fascinating experience. I also really enjoyed being free to get up and move around right after the birth.
I think it is a wonderful thing that we have pain medication available for those who want it -- especially once you add in pitocin and other labor- or dilation-inducing medications. I think we're generally (population level, with individual exceptions) adapted to take what our bodies can dish out, but not more. And I also think that it is a good thing that we generally have a choice about if, when, and how much pain we want to feel during childbirth.
I am somewhat disturbed by the obstetrical memory link, though. Sure, some people chose home births when it is not in their best interest to do so, some doulas behave unprofessionally, and many, many women who think they want a birth without using pain medication change their minds. But using that as an example of why childbirth without pain medication is a bad thing is like proponents of home birth trotting out a very few examples of questionably necessary (or outright malpractice) medical care causing problems for mom or baby. There are always rare circumstances when things go wrong, and it is a mistake to make decisions based on the perception that they are the rule rather than the exception.
Since the pain meds do come with a few small risks, I don't see the harm in aiming to avoid using them. You can always change your mind later! It's not a ridiculous choice, and my experience was sufficiently fantastic that I would never say that it was overrated.
Finally, I think your chronic pain folks might be desperate to be taken seriously (whether for physiological or psychological reasons) but I don't quite get the comparison between childbirth and other kinds of pain. I've experienced a fair amount of pain and it was all of different character, and less tolerable, than that of childbirth. We do as a society use childbirth as a benchmark for pain -- I've heard it used as a point of comparison since I was a child (perhaps because it is also a rite of passage and thus more ingrained as a cultural reference point?). So perhaps that is the motivation of your patients -- to call on some common standard to quantify their misery, for better or worse?
But using that as an example of why childbirth without pain medication is a bad thing
Well I thought it was more of a cautionary tale about why childbirth without adequate medical supervision is a bad idea. The patient in that story still experienced a lot of pain. The writer seemed to be more concerned about the danger the patient and her doula put everyone in.
I indicated that the post was off-topic when I posted the link.
There are always rare circumstances when things go wrong, and it is a mistake to make decisions based on the perception that they are the rule rather than the exception.
How rare would they be with zero medical care, pre-natal or otherwise? I think you are seriously confused about how dangerous childbirth can be. Dr. ERP has a good post about the dangers. He writes, although it is “natural”, delivering a baby is potentially very dangerous. Death used to be common and accepted as recently as 80 years ago as an unfortunate complication of reproducing. I can't say it better than that.
Also, you must surely realize that homebirths are cherry-picked. It's really not fair to make comparisons unless you want to randomly assign women to a medically supervised birth or one supervised by hooting midwives.
I don't see the harm in aiming to avoid using them. You can always change your mind later!
Can you? I was under the impression that sometimes it is too late to start pain meds during delivery.
Oh no. I can think of several things worse than labor. The stomach flu we caught from daycare was one of them. Try throwing up 40 times in 15 hours so hard you pee your pants every time and end up with black eyes and bloody noses.
Now breastfeed and nurture an infant while doing that with little help from your spouse because, while you're puking in the bathroom, they're puking in the yard (that's what happens when you have one restroom and two people with the stomach flu at the same time).
That is way harder/more painful than labor.
Labor is painful, but not the most painful thing imo.
M
So if childbirth isn't so bad after all, does that mean that you women lose some sympathy points?
Maybe our mancolds are actually worse than we thought.
;-D
I think that the differences between one(person's)pain and another's is reflected in the old joke about the difference between comedy and tragedy. Comedy is when you fall and break your leg. Tragedy is when I get a splinter in my finger.
I think dementedM wins as the worst possible affliction. Oh, blech.
Now I am sort of sad I never had any real labor with any of my kids. My first was all twisted up and had the cord wrapped around her and under her so a c-section was done. My second were twins and one baby was set perfectly but the other was all wrapped up the same way my first was and the doctor felt it was unsafe to try. That and the fact that I did not want to have to recover from delivering two different ways at once if it didn't work out. My third (but fourth child) was all tangled up in cord too. Unfortunately something about me or my kids seems to make them want the cord UNDER them and totally in the way for delivery. For me, labor was pain free because I never had any except preterm with 3 of them. So for me, EVERYTHING is more painful than labor/childbirth was. And all of this really has nothing at all to do with your post, which I loved.
I have had chronic neck pain for over four years now. I am a 37 year old mother of three and had the job of my dreams. I worked at a university for 15 years and worked my way up the ladder to a nice Director job that I loved and made $60,000+.
I had to leave my job last year because the pain was unbearable. I stuck it out as long as I could and when my docs had tried everything to help me and there was nothing left to try, I threw in the towel. This has left me very depressed with a sense of loss from losing my professional identity.
I comment here because you seem to have an opinion about chronic pain that concerns me. Maybe I am reading too much into it but some of your other posts seem to put down CPers - even the genuine ones - as being over exaggerative, whiney babies- to say the least.
Because of the abusers, I have always worried that a doctor will think I am after drugs or think that I am just a big baby and can't stand the slightest bit of discomfort.
Anyway, I find myself "justifying" my use of narcotics whenever I have to talk about it. I fear judgement from doctors and fear they have the same attitude that you seem to have. I just wonder if you think that all CPers are full of it? Do you recognize that some people have genuine needs to control their pain? Do you ever look at someone and think that maybe they are telling you the truth?
I guess what I really want to know is if the abusers have tarnished any chance of a real CPer ever getting help? I had a MAJOR flare up on a three day weekend a few months ago and was confined to bed for all three days. My husband said I should call my doc. My PM doc doesn't accept after-hours calls and advises patients to go to the ER if pain becomes elevated to the point of misery. HAAA!! What a laugh...I wouldn't go to the ER and ask for further pain relief unless my arms were on fire! If I do that, I will earn the label of a drug seeker and I feel certain that any ER doc would listen to my problems and tell me that I should wait until my PM doc office is open. It's such a hopeless situation.
I realize I am rambling so I will shut up. I am honestly not trying to "take you on" or anything like that. I really just want to hear what your thoughts are about people with genuine pain problems. Is there any chance that we will ever be believed? I know my surgeon and PM doc totally believe me but if I am ever faced with having to "convince" another doc, do I have a chance? I really don't want anyone to think that the pain I live with is a joke.
An occasional ER visit for an exacerbation of chronic pain is not inappropriate, and I would not look at you funny, belittle your condition, or question your decision to seek my care. I would evaluate you as soon as I reasonably could and treat your condition to the best of my ability.
A thorough examination includes asking questions about your medical condition and your past medical/surgical history, reviewing previous records if available, performing a physical examination to determine if an emergency medical condition exists, and reviewing your current and recent treatments so that I can make an appropriate decision regarding what interventions I feel would be most useful to alleviate your suffering and ensure that you are not at risk for acute morbidity or mortality.
If you keep returning to the ER for the same painful condition or a variety of questionably valid painful conditions, then you are going to be looked at with some suspicion. Whether or not a frequent flyer receives narcotics often depends upon whether they have a terminal/serious illness and how unpleasant they are to the staff.
Thanks Scalpel, for clarifying that. I really hate being in this situation and I frankly, hate to be a whiner...I am so fearful of being labeled and I guess that is good so it will always keep me out of trouble. Fear of narcotics is a good thing. Thanks for responding and easing my mind! I really enjoy your blog.
For Jill-
perhaps the reason ER staff seem to mistrust the frequent flyers c/o pain is that we see them walk out just fine on those days they don't get the narcotics from us, and as they wait in the waiting room they are occasionally to be seen eating chips, drinking soda, and chatting animatedly on their cell phones. Then when they are called back to the room, or up to be triaged, they are acting quite differently.
If the pain is genuine, you cant turn it on and off like that.
I am sorry about your condition, and hope that you are not treated poorly if you do need to go to an ER. We actually are pretty good at distinguishing the drug/prescription seekers from those who need just an occasional breakthrough pain med.
BTW, anyone remember the dentist scene in James Frey's book A Million Little Pieces? Heh.
Once upon a time I had a severe migraine that lasted for over three years. Three years straight. [Do I get a medal for only going to the ER for treatment once in all of that time? ;)] Anyyyyhow, I hadn't considered it, but I would have taken l&d over that, many times.
I love people that say they are in 10/10 pain, but are willing to tough it out. Because they are tough.
I say, if you aren't "willing" to take medication for the pain - you aren't in enough pain yet. :)
"So if childbirth isn't so bad after all, does that mean that you women lose some sympathy points? "
Oh labor is aptly named. It is hard work, painful and uncomfortable but it is not the worst thing (imo) that you can experience and my labor was pretty crappy. But I think the myth outpaces reality.
I would to labor a few times over if it meant my daughter would sleep well her first year of life. Prolonged sleep deprivation is a 500 on my pain scale.
M
With both my natural births pain seems to scale with the amount of dialation. 5 cm is about a 4 , 7 cm is about a 6, 9 cm is about an 8. Thank god you push the damn thing out after that. I am lucky because I have ehlers-danlos and the kids just pop out-the first with three pushes and the second with two pushes. What makes childbirth so bad is that you go from 0 between contractions to 8 during the contraction then back to 0. for chronic pain you just adapt over the long haul as there isnt much else you can do, thus I can see it ranking lower. a three day old kidney infection-that was a 6 or 7.
as for delivery the whole laying on your back is horribly painful compared to relining or squatting and makes pushing difficult-but I guess it is easiest on the doc who was in the room all of 2 min.
given the high MRSA rates and pokes, prods and continous fetal monitoring which actually goes against ACOG recs, I think a midwife/birth center will be my next option
Teresa,
I couldn't agree more that childbirth without adequate medical supervision is a bad idea. I'm not sure why you think I am an advocate for this, as I assure you I am better acquainted with "how dangerous childbirth can be" than the vast majority of women, statistically speaking.
While I am not an advocate for homebirth (indeed, the birth experience I described occurred in my wonderful local women's hospital -- I couldn't recommend them more highly), I totally agree that they are (or at least, should be) cherry-picked. The point I was trying to make was that using an extremely poorly conceived home birth as evidence for why giving birth without pain medications is a bad thing is as much a logical fallacy as using an extremely rare care of iatrogenic complications to advocate for home birth.
And yes, if birth is imminent, then it can be too late for an epidural to be given and take effect before birth, there are other options for IV meds that can be given up through delivery. I do know two women who decided at the last minute that they wanted epidurals, but gave birth before they could get them. They are both quite glad that they ended up giving birth without the epidurals. Yet the plural of anecdote is not data, and I would be quite interested in a study of the experiences of women aiming for a childbirth without pain medication who end up requesting epidurals -- how many get them in time, how many are too late and go without them, and especially how they feel about that after the fact.
I really am not anti-epidural); I think it is truly a wonderful thing that we have such a range of options in safely giving birth to our babies. In addition to the morbidity and mortality, childbirth used to be a horrific experience for many women, and the fact that state-of-the-art medical care can make it a positive experience for both women who want pain medication and those who don't is well-nigh miraculous.
Scalpel, I'm not sure if you were kidding with So if childbirth isn't so bad after all, does that mean that you women lose some sympathy points? or just about the mancolds part, but I personally would happily relinquish sympathy points, as I had a very positive esperience -- I'd reserve them for the women who want epidurals who labor too quickly to get them, as I hear that is HELL. Ditto for the rare woman whose epidural doesn't work or only works on one side. They definitely have my sympathy!
In an unlikely coincidence, my husband was recently diagnosed with an allergy to most of the OTC nsaids -- he's definitely allergic to aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen. He's done challenge testing with celebrex and seems to tolerate that, at least for now. If we make sure to point out that he can take acetaminophen and celebrex, can we avoid being seen as drug seekers if he's ever seen in the ER?
Cheers,
Anon 7/09/2008 01:04:00 PM
Doesn't anyone take a course in dialectics anymore? Or at least a course in reading as opposed to knee-jerking?
Pointless to continue. 'Nuff said.
I just want to let you know I've referenced this entry in an entry of my own. Thank you, merci bien!
I was in the ER a few weeks ago for a migraine that just would not quit and was horrible. For me, it was a 7.
When the ER doc finally saw me, I just asked him for a shot of Toradol. I didn't want narcotics because I had to be at work in the morning. He looked genuinely surprised.
I'm pretty sure he was expecting me to ask for Dilaudid or Morphine.
Vicodin makes me feel all wierd and spaced. I can't believe there are people that actually LOOK for that feeling.
I really, really hope I never get you as a doctor.
I've had both chronic pain and difficult childbirths- natural hospital births that had medical reasons to become "un-natural"; a homebirth that was one of the worst experiences of my life and resulted in disability to my child; and 2 hospital births that were managable. Because I've had 4 babies, doctors very often ask me to compare my pain level to childbirth, so I have used it as an analogy. You ask stupid questions, you get stupid answers. Labor pain is different then chronic pain, and labor pain is different then other kinds of acute pain. Pain in the head is different then pain in the foot. Pain that goes away when you rest is different then relentless, all the time pain. Childbirth pain is not all over every single part of your body.
If doctors didn't assume you were lying, assume you were drug seeking, assume that you have nothing better to do then to sit in the ER for hours upon hours in the mere hopes of making the next couple of days tolerable, if they didn't openly admit that most of the time they assume you are exaggerating, if they treated patients who are in perfect health and broke a leg with the same compassion as they do with a harder-to-pin down condition such as fibromyalgia or lupus; maybe patients wouldn't feel the need to do what you say they are doing; which is honestly not what is going on. What is going on is that, in a time when they are in pain, probably aren't sleeping well, are seeing you because they either don't have insurance, can't get in to their doctor, or can't wait until the morning- they are struggling to find some sort of way to explain it to the person in the white coat who just seems to want to clear out the bed with preferably the least amount of trouble to them as possible. And as others mentioned, the relentless nature of chronic pain; pain you have no hope of getting an epidural that cuts out sensation to the painful part of your body for, pain that will not go away in hours or days-
You need to take some pain management courses, get yourself out of the dark ages, get some compassion, and preferably get a chronic pain illness- something that won't kill you so no one feels a need to treat you.
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