Each Day Already is a Challenge

What is pain?

When you have an injury or chronic pain, doctors, physical therapists, chiropractors, etc. want to know about your level of pain on a scale of 1 to 10. When I had my time in front of the Social Security judge last month, he also wanted to know about the level of pain that I have on a daily basis.

It helps to know how a person defines pain. They usually tell you that level 10 is the worst pain you have ever experienced.

For me, remembering the worst pain(s) I've ever had is easy.

First there were the two times that I have been burned. Not many people have the same identical burn injuries twice in a lifetime.

The first time I was burned was in about 1976. I was heating water on the stove in a tea kettle. When it started to whistle, I grabbed the kettle to make a cup of instant coffee. At that moment, our new Irish Setter puppy came running into the kitchen and bumped into me just as I was pouring the hot, steamy water into the cup. I had 2nd and 3rd degree burns from my fingertips to my elbow, on my left hand/arm. (I'm left handed.) I was screaming in pain when my then spouse drove into the driveway. From the sounds of my screams, he thought I was being killed. I think I wished...

In 1983, I had the same injury! Again, I was heating water to make instant coffee. Again a dog (adult, not puppy) bumped into me as I was pouring. Again I was burned from my fingertips to my elbow on my left hand/arm. 2nd and 3rd degree burns. Different spouse, different city, different dog. Same kind of burn.

In spite of having serious burns, I have no scars. They really do have some excellent burn creams that help in healing. I guess it also helped that I went to the hospital every day to have them dress the wounds. There was no way I could handle getting rid of dead skin and bandaging my own hand and arm.

Each of these deserve a level 10 on the pain scale.

My son was born in 1984. I had labor pains for about 14 hours before the doc decided to do a C-section. At one point, I opted for an epidural and rather than stopping the pains, they were transferred to my chest area. I had labor pains in my chest and thought I was having a heart attack. That caused me and the baby to have too much trauma, and that's when the C-section was scheduled. Those pains were what I think of as level 10.

In 1985, an 85 year old lady ran a red light and hit my car. The car was totaled. I had no broken bones, but boy was I bruised, especially where the seat belt grabbed me. Some of the bruising deserved a 10.

In 1997, I hurt my back at work. It was a stupid injury. I was unpacking boxes in the storage room of the gift store at Bok Tower Gardens. I thought the box I was lifting held books, but it only held cards. There's quite a difference in the weight of books and cards, and when I lifted the box thinking it contained books, I was caught off guard at how light the box really was (with only cards in it). I lost my balance and twisted my back. I have been dealing with that ever since. When I first injured my back and for days afterwards, the pain level reached 10.

In 2002, I hurt my knee at work. Again, it was a stupid injury. I was working in the boys' department of a department store. It was nearing Easter, and we had lots of suits and ties to hang. I reached down into a box to get out some ties and lost my balance. I landed on a chair nearby, hurting my already hurting back. But as I lost my balance I also heard a loud crack. That was my knee injury. My co-workers also heard the "crack" and went to get help even before I asked. At the time of the injury, my pain was at level 10.

In 2004, I went to the emergency room with chest pains. Definitely level 10.

These are how I define level 10 pain. Zero pain level is just what it says - no pain.

Most days, I wake up with about level 6 pain all over my body, with level 6-8 in my knee and back. Sometimes I can get the pain down to a level 4-5, but without knocking myself out, I can't take enough pain medicine to be totally pain free.

Back in Michigan a few years ago, one "lovely" (as hubby says, not my word for him) doctor informed me that pain was never a disabling factor.

Really? Boy, oh boy, it was hard to maintain my good Christian attitude with that doctor. You know I wanted to wish some of my pain on him. But I didn't...