Pain

[deirdre]

I don't really whine about pain much.

One thing I discovered from therinth, who's a burn ward nurse: you can code from pain. After learning that (I always knew it was a priority interrupt, just not to that degree), mine never seemed so awful.

So, here's my scale -- note that I apply the level after appropriate medication, not before:

10: the special hell of pain found in burn wards (and hospitals) where you can go into cardiac events or howl uncontrollably. Never been there, thankfully.

9: actual vomiting, significant blood pressure spike, or complete inability to sleep. I have been there, just not recently.

8: prolonged nausea, sleep difficulty. I've been at this level for a week now. Rick talking about food made me want to throw up this morning. I still haven't had anything to eat.

[…]

1: you notice that you hurt.

So yeah, not so great time this last week; been in a flare, doc screwed up prescription, meds taking too long to arrive. Yada yada yada.