Pain Is A Symptom

Our body provides us hints if something is wrong. If we see swelling, heat, and redness in an area then we know that indicates an infection may be present. Bruising especially if it occurs frequently all over alerts us to an issue needing to be addressed by a doctor. A body temp of 100 or greater alerts us to a possible infection or inflammatory process going on. Pain is not normal. It tells us of an injury or a process going on which may need intervention especially if it is constant.

Pain says hello, pay attention something isn't right. When needing medical attention, most all of us are asked to describe our pain from when did it start, is it constant or comes and goes, location, what makes it worse or what help improves, to describing the type of pain. Burning, Numb, throbbing, aching, sharp, cramping, dull are the most descriptive to choose from. Then you are asked to rank your pain from 1-10 going from barely noticing to the worst pain you have ever felt. Now most of the these are subjective because everyone has a different pain tolerance to the way we would describe. Unfortunately this is the only system we have right now. I had a baby without any blocks or medication, passed a small kidney stone while taking and tolerating OTC meds but have had a migraine so bad it took going to the ER to get a shot. Once I had a horrible stomach ache for days and couldn't get in with my own doctor so went to the ER. I was asked what number was my pain and I said 9. Dr laughed at me and said for a stomach ache? Turned out I had a pretty severe case of Pancreatitis. I have to say he took me serious after confirming that diagnosis.

There are days I wish we could actually transfer my pain to the physician to see what or how they would label or describe it. I once told a doctor I had experienced a really tough series of muscle spasms in which he asked for me to describe. When i did he said oh you mean cramps. NO, I have had cramps with the monthly cycle, I have had leg and foot cramps before as well. What I was experiencing were 100% true muscle spasms. Pain is probably one of the most difficult to explain yet one of the symptoms probably taken less seriously. I know of someone who started experiencing pain bad enough to finally go to the doctor. She was told it was probably a bladder infection, maybe you have a small kidney stone, it could be a cyst on one of your ovaries, etc. Nobody got in a hurry to identify the source. 4 months later it was discovered she had cancer, a sarcoma tumor causing the pain. This isn't an isolated case sorry to say. What makes pain sometimes hard to be diagnosed is because more often than not, the pain location may be in an area not close to where the issue is. I have heard of people with low back pain having lung cancer, shoulder pain during a heart attack, or upper GI pain for appendicitis. I had back pain during labor which felt a lot like I was having acute back spasms. So everyone is different but this just means we need to be as descriptive as we can and not allow those in charge of our care to ignore or go slow when trying to find answers.

Although most pain can have a cause identified there are many who simply can't find answers. Even having an answer doesn't mean you can resolve with specialized treatments or medications. This is where Chronic Pain comes into play and how important it is that we aren't ignored, dismissed, or have a stigma attached. We are not drug seekers nor are we hypochondriacs... just unlucky.