I was having a discussion the other day with a friend who does not feel pain on a daily basis. He was amazed that when I said I felt a pain of “5” I was able to function as much as I was, as he said if he felt a pain of a “5” he would be screaming.
It got me thinking how we, those of us more often in pain than not, get so used to pain that it is almost second nature to us.
Right now I am in a lot of pain in my lower right back, due to my stent and kidney stones. If I had to put a number on it I would say a “7” on the old 1-10 scale.
Usually when I have kidney stones they give me norco and it does the trick. The last few weeks, though, I’ve had to go to the ER 2 additional times due to pain as I’ve had pain due to additional stones on top of the old stones and pain due to the stent itself. They gave me a script for Oxycontin and Toradol and as of now the combo is not working other than bringing the pain down from a nine to about a 6 or 7.
I am not sure what to do as the day five of the Toradol is almost up and I am almost out of Oxycontin.
How much longer I can last without another trip to the doctor or the ER I do not know. Hopefully I will get the stent out before then, so that the pain level will go down and make the question moot.
But I guess the question is, how often do we do daily tasks when in chronic pain? Do we have any other choice? How do you explain this to someone not in pain? How much pain do you find yourself in, on average?