Let me write about pain, namely its management. Two Three months in, at least a few more to go, I approach this subject as a case study, as a patient. This is not medical advice, but the experience of pain.
From the Doc
The staff in the hospitals various offer two solutions to pain:
- Take pharmaceutical aids, and
- Find physical and/or occupational therapy.
While I am sure the Hippocratic Oath is strong in the practitioners, pain at home is a whole different ballgame than the drugged and supervised boredom of the hospital.
Of course take your meds – Stoicism here is not in enduring the pain, but staying disciplined in your pain management schedule and overall recovery. Yet as you too might discover is that constant work may be inconvenient and the pills are delayed or overwhelmed.
For when the typical advice fails, we look elsewhere:
Second Opinion
My virtual mentor Doctor Andrew Huberman delivered a podcast just in time for my case. Talking with Dr. Sean Mackey, they covered a fantastic range of pain management strategies and tactics I combined with some self-discovery made on the first hospital visit:
- Smile
- While it may be more of a grimace, smiles release endorphins and ease pain.
- Touch / See / Remember Loved Ones
- More feel-good brain chemicals in this. For me, it was images of an amazing cat, text check-ins, and visits with friends. I will visit any friend local-hospital bound daily from here out.
- Distraction
- Netflix, podcasts, leg jiggles – do not let the mind dwell on and amplify the pain. This also applies to causing pain elsewhere on the body to redirect focus.
- Walk
- Be ambulatory. Take light exercise as permitted. This improves pain tolerance.
- “Hurt, Not Harm”
- Repeat as a mantra. Nothing is as bad or swell as perceived. This too shall pass. I vouch for this method since I chanted to great benefit while pacing a few hours one night.
- Plain Food
- You might hate it, but I swear you will despise the pain more. A few areas: lower your sodium intake, avoid lactose and other inflammators, and for the love of sanity, do not take supplements that aggravate the condition (e.g. creatine drawing water into my wounded area).
- Interruption
- Get in front of the nerve signal: tapping and rubbing between the pain point and the brain overrides worse sensations.
Off to a great start. TMI: After so far three each of hospitalizations, surgeries, and months, I have developed and adopted far more to save my very soul from the sensations this body has wrought:
Selfcare of Pain
- Morphine
- Always say “yes” when on offer.
- Schedule
- Stick to the taking-of-pain-management timeline no matter external factors.
- Cell Phone Charger
- Do not leave home without it, even to the ER. I assume you have a cell – its educational, connection, and entertainment potential is without par for making time fly (or slightly more bearable). Bonus points for earbuds to not be an ass to others in the vicinity when sound plays.
- Advocacy
- You are you own best cheerleader – act like it. Educate yourself, understand all the what, why, how, when, and who. Know or it is a “no” – do not tolerate non-emergency surprises and get comfortable telling strangers to back-the-f-off while they explain themselves. Be kind yet firm, ready to engage in your own care, and despise incompetence or a flippancy towards responsibility.
- Towel
- I never had to bite a towel for pain before. Glad it was there. When you wake without medication and an exposed… medical situation, you will be glad for a towel too.
- Drain It
- As able, raise, remove blood, and secure the area for immobility. Starve the nerves of reason and means to fire.
- Secure Space
- Save the need to decide while making a tough life easier by making a space your own. For me, that has been a pillow fort offering comfort, stability, options to configure and reposition, and a divorce of ill from the places I hope to enjoy post recovery.
- $$$
- Apply for your disability and any financial support services applicable. Better: live a life of financial studiousness before harm; “in peace, prepare for war.” Money may not take away the physical pain but it will make other life pains so much easier or unnecessary.
- Sleep
- Do it. Even if conscious, stay still unless feeding, keeping hygiene, or exercising.
- Don’t Look
- Surgery, wounds, injection sites… Let the work be done by professionals without you rubbernecking at it too.
–
Pain really f-king sucks. And its management can really suck too – the #1 duty in such a situation is to stabilize and minimize the need for such care.
Needless, heedless suffering would seem to be the primordial evil. With these tools, I hope you do not suffer as much and for as long.
Cheers to our recoveries ~
Jimmy Chattin 