When I reach my pain tolerance my body completely shuts down on me. This is what happened this past week with my shoulder pain. I was able to get the kids to school and then I would come home and crash outside some minor stuff around the house. When the kids got home, I helped with homework and then would head to bed almost as soon as they would go down. I gave in and took my pain meds this past week as well as I couldn't tolerate it any more.
Thankfully, despite the crazy weekend, my shoulder appears to be doing a little better. Saturday was a fairly calm day with Cynthia attending a birthday party and a family grocery run. Sunday we ran nonstop so my shoulder pain spiked again but has calmed down a small amount. Even though I'm still in a fair amount of pain, having it ease up some which is nice.
Pain can do funny things to a person. People with chronic pain learn to live with it often coming to the understanding that the likelyhood of it never completely going away is slim to none. During high pain situations, any pain reduction is a nice break. the rest of the time we use various coping strategies and tend to develop a high pain tolerance. During my last right knee surgery in which a plastic surgereon closed a hole just below my knee, he told me I officially have a high pain tolerance. I recovered at home when the normal course of recovery would have been 4-5 days in the hospital. What this really means to me and my family is when I have reached my max, I am in way more pain than the average person. Thankfully this doesn't happen too often. My normal pain range during the day is around a 6/7 out of 10. Knowing other aut immune people, this is probably not out of the ordinary and is a way of life.
Next time you run across someone who lives with chronic pain, give them a smile but please don't say feel better because feeling better has varying degrees but is not something we can completely ever achieve.
Until tomorrow....
No comments:
Post a Comment