My pain scale changed drastically when recovering from shoulder surgery. What was an 8 before was now relegated to about a 4.I just love it when they ask what your pain level is on a scale of 1-10. How do you answer that when you’ve been in pain for many years? After awhile you get used to pain and live with it.
I’ve been dealing with back pain for years, hopefully before ski season I get a nerve block.
So my buddy and I who haven't seen each other in person for 18 months (Covid and WFH) were commiserating in the parking lot after hockey for about an hour. So it's time to go..we both open our car doors and neither one of us could fold into our cars without copious OMG's and all kinds of gyrations...and we just both started laughing hysterically. Like what else can you do? I wish there were video of that moment man... His wife busted a gut and suggested we just finish ourselves off with a 9mm and go out while we still have SOME dignity!!!!The funniest thing is getting up in the morning in a shared ski house. The squalls of what @mdf calls "OMG"* can be strong and frequent.
* Old Man Grunts
My pain scale changed drastically when recovering from shoulder surgery. What was an 8 before was now relegated to about a 4.
Like....aging clumsily?...aging gracefully but it beats the alternative
Like pushing up daisies which is where most of my peers are at.Like....aging clumsily?
That may be true, or not. There's only one way to find out.Managing chronic pain is a key part of aging gracefully but it beats the alternative.
It appears that it just detaches you from the pain. Yes it is still there but not so much if you do not pay attention to it.A few days before this thread came up I was discussing my favorite pet peeve, namely that medical doctors here (Ontario Canada) refuse to prescribe adequate pain killers (at least to me) for fear of being disciplined for contributing to the opiate epidemic. That reminded me how morphine worked on me when I had my wrist operation. It's not that it killed the pain, it's just that my mind didn't seem to care. If I thought about the pain, as in asking myself am I in pain the answer would be yes, but if I didn't bother asking myself, I didn't notice it. The morphine had other interesting effects on my mind, but I digress.
So I had this thought thinking about the above, "What if we are all always in pain, but we just don't notice it?"
A few days before this thread came up I was discussing my favorite pet peeve, namely that medical doctors here (Ontario Canada) refuse to prescribe adequate pain killers (at least to me) for fear of being disciplined for contributing to the opiate epidemic. That reminded me how morphine worked on me when I had my wrist operation. It's not that it killed the pain, it's just that my mind didn't seem to care. If I thought about the pain, as in asking myself am I in pain the answer would be yes, but if I didn't bother asking myself, I didn't notice it. The morphine had other interesting effects on my mind, but I digress.
So I had this thought thinking about the above, "What if we are all always in pain, but we just don't notice it?"
Mindfulness techniques and chronic pain management skills have been found to be about as effective as opioid pain medications in the treatment of chronic pain and without any risks or side effects. Your doctor should be able to refer you to a counselor or chronic pain program who can provide this training.Interesting topic. After all, pains are just some neuroelectrical signals, transmitted to your brain, and interpreted by your brain. I remember reading a book called “The Mindful Way Through Depression”. The method taught in that book works for both depression and chronic pain. I guess there must be some similarities between these two.
My pain scale changed drastically when recovering from shoulder surgery. What was an 8 before was now relegated to about a 4.
I should clarify: the surgery and after wasn't bad. The PT was excruciating.Same here! Years, (decades actually I had shoulder reconstruction surgery. At the time, aside from ski racing I was all into Martial arts & the power of visualization/meditation & generally anti-drug. I told the surgeon that I didn’t want be prescribed any pain killers post surgery. To my surprise he thought that was a good idea, telling me that at best the pain killer would be effective for about half the time interval that it could be taken meaning I’d be in and out if pain whereas if I could just get used to it, the pain would remain at one level and subside to a dull ache as my mind compensated. Anyway the first night was rough, but by day 2 it was just chronic then day 3 a dull ache. After a week non existent unless I moved wrong or something but even that was temporary.
Anyway, I’ve been blessed to have remained without aches aside from the occasional pulled muscle or minor injury and often wonder if at some point your mind just compensates?
Truthfully though If I had to undergo a similar procedure today I don’t know if I’d be as hard core, clearly I’m a lot softer now lol.
Same here! Years, (decades actually I had shoulder reconstruction surgery. At the time, aside from ski racing I was all into Martial arts & the power of visualization/meditation & generally anti-drug. I told the surgeon that I didn’t want to be prescribed any pain killers post surgery. To my surprise he thought that was a good idea, telling me that at best the pain killer would be effective for about half the time interval that it could be taken meaning I’d be in and out of pain whereas if I could just get used to it, the pain would remain at one level and subside to a dull ache as my mind compensated. Anyway the first night was rough, but by day 2 it was just chronic then day 3 a dull ache. After a week non existent unless I moved wrong or something but even that was temporary.
Anyway, I’ve been blessed to have remained without aches aside from the occasional pulled muscle or minor injury and often wonder if at some point your mind just compensates?
Truthfully though If I had to undergo a similar procedure today I don’t know if I’d be as hard core, clearly I’m a lot softer now lol.