No one should have to go through getting their pain scale calibrated like that.
No doubt, ND. I've had a kidney infection, drove 70 miles 24 hours after I unknowingly broke my arm, took Vicodin 3 days/month for 2 years for level 6-7 cramps before I had my hysterectomy, and suffer migraines (nothing like ita !, thank dog) and those 7 gall bladder attacks were absolutely hideous.
There's no way at all I could have driven with them, and I went to the ER once, a week before my surgery, and only because my surgeon told me to (and by the time they got to me with IV Dilaudid, it was 3 hours later, and the pain was mostly a 4. I took it anyway. I mean, I'd been waiting writhing and sobbing anyway...)
Research showed me gall bladder attacks are more painful than kidney stones AND childbirth. I tend to believe it. I thought I was going to die.
My kidney stone hovered around 7 or 8, and sometimes approached 9.
I took off from work.
Yes, I imagine you did!
My first gall bladder attack, I had NO idea what it was and it was awful. But my husband was asleep, and my stepson was asleep, and I didn't want to scare them, so I lay there in agony for 5 hours.
I thought maybe I had appendicitis, but that part of my body wasn't tender to the touch, so I just sucked it up.
It's raining like the apocalypse here. Very impressive thunder and lightning. This means I can stay in bed all day, right?
When ND was at the height of the acute necrotizing pancreatitis, he was screaming and had sweat through all of his clothes. Screaming. From a man who never even admits he's in pain. It was the most hideous thing I've been through as a partner--seeing someone I love so much in so much pain and being so completely helpless.
I'm so sorry that that type of pain is something you go through on a regular basis, ita. My heart hurts for you. I just want to find a magic cure so you never have to feel that kind of pain again.
One of the stupid parts of migraine pain (or that being over the horizon) is that screaming is a feedback loop. It's very tempting and also repulsive. Quiet sobbing, punching the wall, breaking things, holding sharp things tightly--those are the only remediation options I currently have.
What I hate hate hate is not being able to talk without crying. Like, I can hold it together if I sit and stare, and then a person says anything and my throat closes and I sob and can't speak and feel like a moron even though it's an ER and collapsing people is what they do, and I have never screamed or flinched from anything other than touching my face, head, or shoulder. Stab me again with your needles medical people!
I am upset that any of us have any calibration. I am also upset that I'm supposed to have muscle relaxants around here and have no idea where...
Man, my boss said "Hey, can you print out PDFs of these and send them out for the meeting in 15 minutes and also work out how to record the audio of the meeting too?" Uh, no? I can do one or the other, maybe, if you hang up right now. But if you keep talking, I can do maybe one (and given that we use PDF Creator which has *never* not thrown an error (just usually also throws a PDF, BUT NOT TODAY) maybe not even one).
We started the meeting in front of the executives looking so disorganised, and ack.
First day on new role and I'm already planning trips to New York, San Francisco/Mountain View, and Toronto.
Breaking my arm a little over a year ago-- that took Percocet to take down but even when I had to manipulate it for x-rays it was never worse than a 7. Something about headaches have a worse character than any internal injury, IMO.
My worst pain was probably when I had my cast off after ankle surgery, and they had to bend the ankle for the first time to start to restore mobility.
Or dry socket from wisdom tooth removal.
