i think i figured out where the hopelessness comes from.
when you’re chronically ill, life loses it’s possibility. you never wake up and wonder what you could go do, you don’t make plans. you just bear down and merely try to exist through what you have to.
-crumbsinthesand
I hate when doctors ask me to rate my pain from 1 to 10. HATE IT. it’s hard to tell anymore. what used to be a 8 is now like a 4 because i’m used to it. i’m tougher. because i’m saving the 8 for when it’s a normal person’s 20. Although i feel like saying “4,” i feel like it makes it seem like only a wussy irritation when it still hurts as bad as the 8. i don’t want to be used to it. i just want it to go away.
or maybe give us a pain scale from 1-100. I want to say 8 so they take me more seriously (or maybe they do already, I don’t know). but i mumble “four” and pray they read between the lines.
Chronic Pain person’s scale:
- why even bring it up?
- meh, minor irritation
- alright I don’t like this at all
- this sucks
- time to take something
- yikes, time to double the dose or take a nap or both
- i hate my life. i hate my life. i hate my life.
- deep breathing, take a bath, grit teeth, take more meds. try not to panic.
- call the doctor
- ER.
Regular person’s scale:
- this sucks, post pain status on facebook
- time to take something
- take a bath, deep breathing, try not to panic
- double the dose or take a nap
- call the doctor, possible trip to ER
- go to ER
- probably dying
- demanding morphine
- all out hysteria
- childbirth.
What do you fellow spoonies think about the 1-10 scale?
-crumbsinthesand
If there is once thing I need, it’s for society to sympathize less, and empathize more.