stepping on the scale

[the_siobhan]

I called Tele-Heath the other night to discuss whether or not I should be concerned about just how much my gallbladder hurt. (Their conclusion; in the absence of vomiting, fever or jaundice take some painkillers and see a doctor during business hours.)

One of the questions they asked me was, "On a scale of 1 to 10, how much does it hurt?"

And I had to think about how to answer that. Because my pain scale changed completely from the experience of having adenomyosis for six years. On a scale of 1 to 10, the adenomyosis was a 12. Childbirth was a 4. If my gallbladder wakes me up in the middle of the night but I'm still capable of having a conversation on the phone - that rates about a 2.

So I said 6.

I still have no idea whether or not that was the right answer.

Comments

[unagothae.livejournal.com]

I don't even have a high tolerance for pain. I can't answer this question because I've had deep second degree burns that covered my legs from my ankles to my knees debrided without painkillers.

I have learned to stop comparing my pain to that. In fact, if I'm in pain, I tell them that its a 10 so that they will take it seriously. If it turns out that nothing it wrong, then at least I got everything properly documented. If something is wrong, then it got taken care of immediately instead of when it was almost about to kill me. Either way, I don't die.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I assume that having an accurate measure of how much pain I'm in will help them diagnose the cause. It also means I don't spend hours in a hospital waiting room in the middle of the night unless I really have to.

[unagothae.livejournal.com]

If I'm in enough pain to seek medical attention, it's probably a 10 by average standards.

I've found that saying, "It's less intense than having burns debrided, but more intense than a Tylenol level headache," helps those who are used to dealing with pain while it just makes others look at me like I'm talking Greek, so I say it's a 10 and they get off their asses and do something.

Generally, the type and location of pain helps them more than intensity. All intensity tells them is whether or not they need to give you a pain killer and what level of pain killer.

That's the way it works here. Other places it might be different.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

In this case I wasn't in enough pain to seek medical attention. I was trying to find out if the pain was an indicator that I should seek medical attention earlier rather than later. I had no desire for anybody to get off their ass, especially me.