Pain is an interesting thing. I broke my femur back in June. Take my word for it, don't do it, it hurts, a lot. What's worse, it didn't heal and needed another surgery. That wasn't fun either. I have learned a few thigs though.

While I remember the numbers I used when I first broke it, I don't remember the actual sensation. Yes, I remember that it hurt a lot, I just can't recall the actual feeling. This time, the surgery hurt, but nowhere near as bad as the first time. At least I don't think so. Using a scale of 0-10 (0 is no pain and 10 is as much as you can imagine) I remember telling numbers like 8 or 9 to the hospital staff. This time it never got over a 3 and most of the time it's been less than that.

So, I'm wondering, do we get used to pain? Is it a psychological trick that my mind is playing on me as a self protection device? I mean, I'm finding this whole experience weird. I was expecting this to hurt a lot more than it is.

Anyone else experience this?

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Freedom isn't free.

Had two similar back surgeries. Lots of pain ahead of the actual procedure
First no real pain after waking up. Second surgery about six years later. NO! Pain after the procedure. Maybe three hydro codons the next two weeks. I feel the Doctor himself has great deal to do with the pain afterward. Second time I encouraged to get out of bed to go to the bathroom. Not required to call a nurse just use good sense when getting up. Like don't get up if dizzy are fuzzy headed.

I had spinal fusion surgery in 2006. The pain before the surgery was excruciating. The pain immediately after the surgery was excruciating. I remember coming out of the anesthesia in the recovery room. It was awful. There was a nurse sitting, watching me. I asked her if I was supposed to be hurting that bad. She told me I was. I guess I went back unconscious, because someone moaning in terrible pain woke me sometime later. It was me. I asked the nurse if I was the biggest crybaby they ever had. She told me no, they had had worse. I guess they wait until they are sure you are going to come out of it before they drug you again. I had to take some powerful pain meds for a week or so. Anyone who says they have never needed them just ain't hurt just right. I am afraid of that stuff, and I didn't take them unless I needed them, and I needed them at the subscribed time. I can understand how someone could get hooked on them.

As per your question, yes, I think our minds block that stuff out, because I really can't recall how it really felt. I don't really want to, either.

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Georgia On My Mind

The first times I had a kidney stone and the gout it was excruciating. I have had incidents of both after that but they were not as bad. I think once you get them the second time you know you can live through it and that might be the difference.
I seen alex karass interviewed once. He was asked what the worst pain he had and he said hemorrhoids! I have had back trouble where you couldnt move a fraction of a inch. No fun! Everything hurt more when I was young but it does seem the older you get the more you can take the pain better with the same events. I remember breaking a leg many years ago but I have to think which one it was now!

Short answer is yes,to both. I broke seven vertebra in a fall from a deer stand a little over 3 years ago. After two surgeries and several "pain reduction" procedures,I was told that it was "as good as it's gonna get,learn to live with it." The first year was bad,the next,a little better. This past year,I still experience varying degrees of pain,but I seldom holler out loud any more. I just make faces.
f.t.

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South Carolina-God's country

I feel for ya' brother. I'm recovering from a bicodylar tibial plateau fracture. This has been the mot painful experience of my life. Started out with two 5mg of oxycodone every 4 hours and over the last two months I reduced to 2 every 6 hours, then 1 every 4 hours, and then 1 every 6 hours. At this point I'm just taking 1 or 2 a day. I'll probably need to take them a little more often when I start walking on it again in a month. That part of the rehab will probably be pretty painful.

I think you are right though. I know it was the most painful thing I've ever dealt with, but the memory of just how bad it was is starting to fade...

I literally have not had a pain-free day for around twenty years, maybe a little longer. For the most part I ignore it. Pain, COPD and advanced age put some limits on what I can do, but usually I can pretty well shut out most of it by keeping my mind occupied with other things.

One of the reasons I hang out with this rowdy, disreputable crowd so much.

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Oh well, what the hell.

I consider an 8 to be when a grown man (me) starts to cry. I've been at that point a few times. A 9 is moaning and 10 is screaming. It seems like dungeon torture goes up to 11.

Oh, two times I really remember are back pain and the other time was PHYSICAL THERAPY.

Just a note about the meds. When you do quit, do it more slowly than you thought you'd have to. Even if you have no pain, drop to 1 a day, then .5 a day, then quit. After the first surgery I went down to 2 Hydrocodone (little lower grade than oxycodone) a day and then I quit. That was one of the worst nights of my life. I'm sure I was having slight withdrawal. I'd rather have the pain.

Also, follow the instructions precisely. The reason for my second surgery was a non-union (bone not healing) and you don't want that.

I'd rather have a broken femur and that's saying something. I have a friend with COPD and that is really debilitating when it kicks in.


rwsmith,
I completely agree with your pain assessment. The original break was the first time I'd ever used the number 9 in my life. I don't believe in exaggeration when talking to the medics. I feel that they need accurate data to give proper care. I'll bet if I ever have a pain level of 10 it will be hard to articulate it because I'll be moments from passing out.

At the emergency room after the initial break, they didn't believe me when I said it was a 5 while not moving. I told them that my profession was measurement and calibration and that I understood the value of a real measurement. The nurse said, "That makes sense, but you should adjust your scale or you might not get the right pain medication." Yeah, I probably suffered a little more than necessary, but I don't want to lie to get more drugs that I didn't want in the first place.

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Freedom isn't free.

Man, I'm certainly thankful that mine is healing so well. It took 2 surgeons 4 hours 2 plates and 9 big screws to fix it the first time and I sure don't want to go through any part of that again.

When I first broke it the pain was only about a 4 or so. I actually waited until the next day to go to the ER. Thought I'd wait and see if maybe I just wrenched it and it would get better overnight. BIG MISTAKE. By 9 or 10 PM the pain was what you're describing as an 8 or 9. Woke up practically screaming in pain about every 30-45 minutes. Most miserable night of my life.

I've actually already skipped taking the meds for as much as a whole day a couple of times. That's how I gauge the residual pain. So far when I've done so I find that the pain comes back with a little more intensity than I want to put up with on a constant basis. No sleeplessness or other feelings of withdrawal though. I agree with you - I don't want to get too dependent on them.

Chronic pain is a fact of life for me. No, I haven't gotten used to it, I just live with it.

It's what gets me up most days/nights. Drugs can and do help mask the pain, but the side effects are many times not worth the relief.

For what it's worth, I seldom have to look far to find someone in much worse pain/shape than I'm in. It has enlightened me to the genuine suffering of so many others. CD

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GOA
USA Shooting Supporter

Rastoff, "I feel your pain. . . ." Pain is a very unusual, and subjective thing. When I was 16 I had a broken femur, and spent 3 months in traction. I have had kidney stones, that were so large they had to be removed surgically. Then more surgery to correct damage done by the stones.

I currently take five hundred to seven hundred MG a day of morphine for chronic pain in my legs. I also have fibromyalgia.
I have had numerous surgical procedures, that were, at best, medieval. Including ten by-pass surgeries on my legs. Currently, veins from my arms, and chest are my femoral arteries in my legs. Yes, you do get accustomed to pain. I have been in my current situation for about ten years, and you learn to live with it. One of the nice things about the human mind is: when you go through a terrible pain producing experience your mind just cannot recall the detail of the severe pain, and time reduces the experience even more.

I would say that without pain medication I could not handle my pain level, but the pain medication does not eliminate all of it. What is remaining you tolerate, and you get better with time in tolerating it.

I am very lucky in that occasionally I can still get to the range, and shoot. There was a period of time when I couldn't.

Best Wishes,
Tom

You guys are making me feel a lot better.

I've been very fortunate and this is the first time I've broken a bone. My life has been relatively pain free until now. I just can't imagine living with the pain(s) some of you have to deal with on a daily basis. I will say a prayer for you all.

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Freedom isn't free.

Though my pain has several times been long lasting and severe, I've VERY thankful that there was an end to it and things got better. Some people have severe pain that doesn't go away and doesn't get better. Like you said, you just have to live with it.

I suffered a work place injury in 1991 that was serious enough that it ended my career in the health care field. I saw a number of doctors and surgeons and none of them could help me - you know you're in trouble when after a while, they begin suggesting that the problem is really between your ears - in other words, you're nuts. Finally, 13 years after the accident, I found an orthopedic surgeon who correctly diagnosed my injuries, and had a plan for my recovery. Part of the plan included a complete surgical rebuilding of my shoulder. Before the surgery, the nurses told me the surgeon was going to install a catheter that would be connected to a new pain pump. This pain pump was supposed to constantly release a measured dose of pain medication to the surgical site around the clock for 3 days. After the 3rd day, I was supposed to visit the doctor and she would do a dressing change, and if needed they would reload the pain pump. After the surgery, just to be on the safe side, they gave me a prescription for some Vicodin just in case I was experiencing pain that the pain pump couldn't control. Once I got home, I iced my shoulder, and took maybe 1 or 2 Vicodins a day until my 3rd post-operative day when I visited the doctor's office for my dressing change and 1st post-operative visit. The nurses were looking at the pain pump, and I could tell something was wrong by the way they were looking and whispering to each other. Finally, one of them got the doctor and she began asking me about my pain level since my surgery. She was amazed when I told her I was taking just 1-2 Vicodins per day. Then she informed my why the nurses were so concerned - it seems that someone forgot to turn the pain pump "on" before I left the hospital! The doctor asked how I could endure so much pain, and I told her that I had lived with chronic, non-stop pain for 13 years, and had developed quite a tolerance to pain.

Best of luck to you - I hope you have a rapid and full recovery.

Regards,

Dave

Dave,
Let me tell you from personal experience, thanks for your medical service. I had several people in the hospital thank me for my service, but it's nothing compared to what you guys do. There was no better medicine through this whole thing than knowing I had competent people taking care of me.

I could not do what you do. Thanks.

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Freedom isn't free.

I have Rheumatoid Arthritis, started kicking in 25 years or so ago. I have had broken ankles, nose, thumb, foot, dislocated shoulder, separated shoulder, and stepped on a 10'' nail that went through my foot (and work boots). I also stepped on a Catfish barb that went in 3+ inches into my heel. I had to work it out, terrible pain. I have had numerous other injuries. Just lucky I guess. I can't remember a day without pain in 40 years, but when I look in my Grand kids eyes, it's all worth it.

You can mentally block out pain sometimes. If I am coaching, I feel very little pain. When the game is over, after a while, the pain comes crashing back. The more you concentrate on the injured part, the more it hurts, if you can concentrate on something else, pain can be lessened.

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PC, censorship
with a smile.

Pain is God's way of letting you know you're not dead yet.

"Pain heals, chicks dig scars, glory lives forever."

I've used self-hypnosis to manage pain. I had an eight-inch gangrenous wound on my abdomen re-opened, debrided and packed while I was conscious. I went away in my head to a happier place; it managed the pain but they tell me I hollered pretty good throughout.

All in all, I prefer drugs, however.

Russ

I have read that the brain does not have the capacity to remember pain; in other words, we don't have the anatomical ability to reproduce in our mind how badly we hurt in the past. Probably a good thing.

All I know is, after my third surgery to remove bladder cancer, (while the first two had been "a walk in the park" pain-wise) I was warned by the nurse (who knew how aggressively the surgeon this time had tried to get all the cancer) that I had to take my pain medication strictly on whatever schedule she had set. That way, I would medicate myself before the pain began, and would be able to "stay ahead" of it while I was healing.

At some point that first day, I must have waited a tad too long. Suddenly, pain that had been somewhat dull and quite manageable became AS CLOSE TO UNBEARABLE AS I COULD IMAGINE. I was moaning and thrashing and I could think of nothing except my pain and how much longer it would be until the medication (which, by then, I had taken) would take effect. It was the definition of absolute agony.

It must have lasted only been a few minutes, but it seemed like time stood still while the base of my gut hurt with a ferocity I knew there was no way I could stand for any but the briefest length of time. I am no wimp, but I am not embarrassed to say that this was hurt that I knew in my soul I could not handle unless I passed out from it. There didn't seem any chance of that though.

My experience with true, overwhelming, and absolutely unbearable pain? I can't remember how it felt, but I KNOW that I never want to feel that again and not have a way to control it. I think if I could remember how absolute the pain was, I wouldn't be able to handle that, either.

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Ukraine -- now more than ever