Pain is relative. At least that much we're sure of. A heavyweight boxer takes a blow to the chin and doesn't seem phased, but the average person, if he's not knocked out, would run home crying to his mommy. The pain scale is supposed to be a more definitive way to "measure" the relativity of your pain. So why is it that we're so unsure of it? I have taken this number line quiz before, seemingly an easy "A" as there is no wrong answer, and yet I was still confused as to which answer to choose. When I asked the ER attendant for a little more guidance he told me that a 10 on this scale represented the pain from giving child birth. Now, I've never experienced giving child birth, and honestly something tells me it's not even in the cards for me, so instead of making my decision based on a pain I had experienced, I thought about Katherine Heigl giving birth to a child in "Knocked Up", Dr. Huxtable asking how far apart are they? and the alien giving birth in "Men in Black." What did any of this have to do with my pain? Nothing. So I sat there, with a throbbing mouthful of bloody gauze, and circled "4". Why 4? I still don't know. But to the ER attendant, it probably meant the pain I was feeling was just under half the pain someone feels when a child comes screaming out of their birth canal...
That didn't seem too bad, seemed like an 8 to me..
My problem with the pain scale, at least from my experience, is that the doctor probably knows what's wrong with you, even without that information. I was sitting in an ER bleeding non-stop from my mouth, went through the whole ER process, just for the doctor to tell me 6 hours later that I needed stitches, something I'd realized before I even left for the hospital. In my situation, the pain scale was completely useless. I would've thought if someone is gushing blood, it wouldn't matter how much it hurt, just reduce the blood loss, and the suffering, and stitch them up. What might be more useful is the type of pain that the patient is feeling. Throbbing, stabbing, that sort of thing. That information along with the location of the pain is usually enough information for the doctor to decide what needs to be done next, if anything. Maybe I'm just bias though...
excellent post. I want to say that you are a very good writer and I look forward to helping you with developing your academic writing as well as your obvious creative skills.
The point that the pain scale was "useless" given your experience is a good point. If pain is subjective, shouldn't there be a different thing that we try and report to the doctor--or indeed, that we "report" simply by external signs on our bodies?
excellent post. I want to say that you are a very good writer and I look forward to helping you with developing your academic writing as well as your obvious creative skills.
ReplyDeleteThe point that the pain scale was "useless" given your experience is a good point. If pain is subjective, shouldn't there be a different thing that we try and report to the doctor--or indeed, that we "report" simply by external signs on our bodies?