My face is having uncontrollable spasms. Great. It hurts really, really, really bad.
I think part of why I have trouble explaining pain to the doctor is when they ask about the pain scale I always think “Well, if someone threw me down a flight of stairs right now or punched me a few times, it would definitely hurt a lot more” so I end up saying a low number. I was reading an article that said that “10” is the most commonly reported number and that is baffling to me. When I woke up from surgery with an 8" incision in my body and I could hardly even speak, I was in the most horrific pain of my life but I said “6” because I thought “Well, if you hit me in the stomach, it would be worse.”
I searched and searched for the post this graphic was from, and the OP deactivated, but I kept the graphic, because my BFF does the same thing, uses her imagination to come up with the worst pain she can imagine and pegs her “10″ there, and so is like, well, I’m conscious, so this must be a 5, and then the doctors don’t take her seriously. (And she then does things like driving herself to the hospital while in the process of giving birth. Probably should have called an ambulance for that one!)
So I found this and sent it to her. Because this is what they want to know: how badly is this pain affecting you? Not on a scale of “nothing” to “how I’d imagine it’d feel if bears were eating my still-living guts while I was on fire”.
I hate reposting stuff, but I’ll never find that post again and OP is deactivated, so, here’s a repost. I can delete this later, i just wanted to get it to you and I can’t embed images in a chat or an ask.
This is possibly why it took several weeks to diagnose my fractured spine.
Pain Scale transcription:
10 – I am in bed and I can’t move due to my pain. I need someone to take me to the emergency room because of my pain.
9 – My pain is all that I can think about. I can barely move or talk because of my pain.
8 – My pain is so severe that it is difficult to think of anything else. Talking and listening are difficult.
7 – I am in pain all the time. It keeps me from doing most activities.
6 – I think about my pain all of the time. I give up many activities because of my pain.
5 – I think about my pain most of the time. I cannot do some of the activities I need to do each day because of the pain.
4 – I am constantly aware of my pain but can continue most activities.
3 – My pain bothers me but I can ignore it most of the time.
2 – I have a low level of pain. I am aware of my pain only when I pay attention to it.
1 – My pain is hardly noticeable.
0 – I have no pain.
It’s also really important to get this kind of scale to people who have chronic pain, because chronic pain drastically lowers your perception of how “bad” any kind of pain actually is, and yet something like this pain scale is extremely user friendly.
For example, if someone asked me how much pain I’m in at any given time, I’d say hardly any, and yet I’m apparently at a chronic 2.5, and it only goes up from there depending on the day.
Enrollment for 2018 Affordable Care Act (ACA / Obamacare) starts November 1 and ends December 15. Trump (what an asshole) reduced the ADVERTISING funds by 90% to announce when people can enroll. Spread the word.
And to make registration even more difficult, Trump will also be shutting down the ACA registration website on Sundays “for maintenance” during peak registration times. Plan ahead. Get registered.
I realize that I’ve been going in circle for an hour, hoping that I’ll bump into something that unlocks a solution to Anne’s suffering. Maybe there’s something in the refrigerator. Maybe there’s something on the patio. Maybe it’s between the cushions in the couch. Maybe if I walk into our bedroom and sit next to her on the bed. Maybe if I hold her hand. Maybe if I don’t hold her hand. Maybe…
I’m sorry to hear Anne had to suffer through this, that you had to experience it with her, that it took as long as it did for her to receive a proper diagnosis along with the care and treatment she needed in order to resolve her pain.
I’ve been in the same place as Anne before. I was just there, in fact. But if a friend hadn’t shared this post with me two days ago, I might not have been anyplace at all today.
I might not have gone to the ER in time. I might not have convinced myself that the pain in my lower left side was severe “enough”.
You see, I’m no stranger to the agony that a ruptured ovarian cyst can cause, and I’ve been on the proverbial merry-go-round at the ER numerous times in the past when I’d presented with the same symptoms.
What they’d tell me was the same each time. They’d run their battery of tests, and then invariably say there was nothing they could do. They’d tell me the cysts would go away on their own one way or another. They’d tell me to just wait it out. They’d tell me to go home and try to make myself as comfortable as possible, and to only come back if I started running a fever or if the searing pain failed to lessen within a few days.
What they neglected to tell me time after time was that sometimes ovarian cysts can actually be life-threatening.
Even without the fever.
Ovarian torsion? They’ve never mentioned this possible complication once. Maybe because they never wanted to scare me. Maybe because the complication itself is relatively rare. Only 6 out of 100,000 women will ever have one of their ovaries twist around until its literally strangled itself of all life and oxygen inside their body.
Whatever their reason was for not fully informing me, it made me adopt a really blasé attitude about my pain, to the point where I was prepared to tough it out on my own because I had been conditioned to believe that even if the pain became excruciating there was nothing the medical professionals would’ve done for me. Cysts come and cysts go is the message I had received countless times, and it’s what I firmly believed in all cases until I read this post.
Please, to all my fellow ovary-bearers, if you start experiencing blinding pain in the lower abdominal region on either the left or right side, always go the ER. Always.
Even if you routinely get ovarian cysts. Even if the doctors and nurses have previously given you the impression that it’s just ‘something that happens’ to some women sometimes. Get it checked out. Demand that they perform a pelvic ultrasound early on,especially if the pain coincides with your time of the month.I cannot tell you the number of times I have received unnecessary CT scans from male ER doctors who failed to consider that my pain was likely gynecological in nature, so please, please, please, do not let their relative unfamiliarity with the female reproductive cycle happen to you, too. Request an additional consult with an OB/GYN if they do not think to request one themselves, and always, always arrive at the ER as soon as you possibly can because you’ll likely have to wait awhile to a.) be seen and b.) get a proper diagnosis even if you do all of the above.
For me personally, it took six hours to get through the chaos of the ER two days ago. By the time they concluded I needed to be on the operating table, I had already internally hemorrhaged close to a full liter of blood.
So again, I beg you guys, if you start experiencing blinding pain in your ovary regions, always get to the ER right away. Don’t just assume it’s a bad cramp or a burst cyst that will recover on its own. If my friend hadn’t linked me to this post when she had, I know that’s what I would’ve done and I’d probably be dead right now because of it.
Always listen to your body, you guys, seek the help you need, and spread awareness when you can to possibly save a life. I’m down a lot of blood and part of my left ovary had to be removed, but I’m doing fine now. I’m so thankful I’m doing fine now. My ovary didn’t kill me and I couldn’t be happier to be alive.
The way a group of eighty year olds judges people for not vaccinating their fuckin kids warms the cold black ashes of my heart.
I remember the camp where I went as a kid had these SCOURING, painful showers. The water pressure was such that it was like getting blasted by a firehose, only less entertaining.
You had to walk through the shower room – there was no option – it was built that way. The showers were usually not on because they were horrible and painful and we all just disobeyed the rule about showering before getting in the pool.
I was an adult before I found out why there was a shower room like that, and that when my mom was a child, no one dared to disobey the shower rule, and all the showers were horrible and scouring. It was for getting as much dirt and stray poo and whatever off you, as an anti-polio measure.
One of my most vivid auditory memories is hearing the sound of my grandmother’s leg brace, which she had worn for most of her life as the result of the polio epidemic in the 1920s.
heyyyy, yall! i’m Le’Andreia.. but y’all can call me Dreia (Drayuh) & i have cancer. i have none hodgkin’s lymphoma. im 22, homeless and my fiancée and i have been living in our car and w friends (neither one of our families live in kansas) our tags expired in august so we’ve been pretty stagnant. we do have jobs but trying to get around and avoid the police is a thing all in itself lol. before anyone else asks, we’re avoiding the police because our tags are bad!!!!!! we aren’t criminals! all i’m asking for is a little help w our vehicle, i need to make it to my last 4 chemo treatments. please help us!!! i’ve created a gofundme in the hopes that people will have a heart & pitch in lol. i previously had an acct but after i withdrew money, it closed out my acct!! please continue to donate, we’re still needing help! 👉🏾 https://www.gofundme.com/2ne7dwk 👈🏾 please donate!!!!
i’ve fallen into a pit of depression. please help me
Ok a white woman used her Black boyfriend as a prop today to beg for money to go to college and is now twice over her limit
But this woman has NON HODGKINS LYMPHOMA and is homeless and losing all hope and has barely over $1k and only asked for $6k?
Like, officially, do we ALL have to put ubiqutous 22 year old white girl pics up to crowdfund? Because apparently you can even be full of shit and an entitled skunk and get 2-3x what you asked for
For god’s sake. This post wont even escape Black tumblr.
And what does she get in the notes? “What if its fake?”
oh fuck off
Can I point out that just sharing this on my FB boosted her campaign by $135 and netted about 30 new shares.
This aint a humblebrag, just pointing out the importance of getting campaigns for us out of the strict Black Tumblr orbit so I’m suggesting anyone who follows me does the same.
Seriously, post this on your FB, twitter, Ello, whatever you can. Write a small amount about it.
a woman literally died yesterday because she needed medical treatment and couldn’t get back into the country she’s lived in since 1995. you utter. fucking. morons.
update: a four-month-old baby who lives in Iran but has family who are American citizens in Oregon was scheduled to undergo urgent heart surgery at a hospital in Portland on February 5; she and her parents are now being denied entry to the United States. these kinds of surgeries take months to plan, and doctors have advised the family that the procedure needs to happen as soon as possible to save the child’s life.
so far, the consequences of the executive orders that “aren’t going to take anything from you or hurt anyone” include the death of a 75-year-old woman and the denial of life-saving medical treatment to a 4-month-old baby. get your fucking heads out of your asses you insensate bastards.
Sources please
there are literally links right there in my comments. what do you want me to do, come to your house and click them for you?
Steel Phoenix Studios 