#when i was trying to downplay how bad my tooth pain was because i didn't think it was anything serious (it was) | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

horce-divorce · 2 years

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Theres something to be said about the way doctors handle chronic pain management when I've heard dozens of stories like this one. Like this is not a unique story actually.

This man, after being SHOT IN THE HEAD WITH A GUN, got up out of bed and took a fucking aspirin and then went back to bed because he thought BEING SHOT was just a headache.

I've heard tons of stories like this. That person who got stabbed in the back and didn't notice the knife still in there at first. Construction workers who've shot nails into their skulls on accident and didn't realize it was in there for years. I actually was going to link to the ones I was thinking of but amazingly, if you Google "stabbed didn't notice" you actually get tons of stories like this. Try it out. I just saw no less than half a dozen articles, each about a different victim of a similar incidents. apparently sometimes you get stabbed and just don't notice!

These are often passed around as "stories that sound fake" but actually if you hear enough of them you realize that this is Just A Thing that happens to humans, actually somewhat often. These are just like any other extreme "unbelievable" survival story, of which there are a countless number. People survive situations in unbelievable ways every single day.

We are REALLY resilient as a species and trauma is weird. Sometimes we get hurt and it's not exactly that we don't know we got hurt... It's that The Show Must Go On and we are so used to downplaying our pain and "pushing through it" that people can convince themselves that a whole bullet or a knife embedded in their body is "just a headache"

And then when people with chronic pain get good at masking because we do this EVERY SINGLE DAY OF OUR LIVES by necessity. Doctors still look us right in the face and just DECIDE that we're not displaying pain dramatically enough. We aren't displaying pain the way someone unaccustomed to it would (i.e. having a fit, screaming and wailing, writhing around panicking etc. I mean sometimes we do look like that actually! But again! The Show Must Go On!)-- ergo since we aren't performing our pain in the expected fashion, it must be faked or exaggerated. Instead it's almost always the opposite. We usually go out of our way to hide our symptoms.

And we still get this reaction near universally, despite all this evidence to the contrary, that even people who were ostensibly healthy and got into freak, traumatic accidents ALSO SOMETIMES HAVE THE SAME REACTION TO THEIR PAIN!! I.e. "oh haha idk it's not really that bad I don't need to go to the hospital I'll just take an aspirin :) it's fine I'm fine this is fine:)) no really i wouldnt wanna be a bother :)"

again, BECAUSE TRAUMA IS WEIRD. It does WEIRD things and it makes you do weird things all in the interest of keeping you functioning despite the trauma that just occurred. Even if it's a bullet that's still inside of you. Even if it's pain you've felt for years.

Then we get these stories about how amazing it is that someone walked around without noticing like a 10 inch screw in their brain or whatever.

And at the same time we encourage everyone to just keep pushing through pain and that its not something serious. Don't call in. Its probably not that bad. Don't go to urgent care. It's probably not worth the cost. Ignore that toothache, it's just a tooth. You're just reading into things. It's probably just stress or anxiety. Etc.

and also at the same time people just absolutely cannot BELIEVE that if you have pain every single day you, by necessity, kinda just have to get used to it!!!!!

"IMPOSSIBLE, you cannot physically IGNORE PAIN. if you REALLY felt it you would be EXPLODING IN FRONT OF MY EYES just like a horror movie" --people who only experience pain on occasion and in unexpected scenarios

Idk what im getting at but we just really need to change the way we talk about and handle pain in this life. Like. Real bad. This is not fine. This is not ok.

chances are if you're only in pain sometimes, your assumptions about chronic pain are completely wrong, and that's not only liable to hurt other people but you as well when you train yourself constantly shrug off what your body is telling you. even if you are fit now, your body will age someday. Even if you dont hurt now, someday you will.

becoming less abled over time is actually the blessing of survival. get used to it. disability is not some special club just for fuckups, contrary to popular belief. it's something that eventually happens to any organism that survives long enough. and that's actually dope and very cool IMHO but not my current point.

moral of the story is I guess listen to your pain. Don't downplay it. Especially if people who can't feel it have told you that it's not bad enough. Never give up on yourself and never downplay that pain. because sometimes it's telling you that you have, idk, a genetic disorder. and sometimes it's telling you there's literally a bullet in there somewhere, but in every case, your pain is telling you something that you definitely need to know. I honestly just cannot think of a single situation where you will benefit yourself or anyone around you by ignoring your pain long-term and I guess these cases are just VERY clear, to-the-point examples of why.

#me #medical stuff #disability stuff #ableism #full disclosure i think this post is a letter.to myself #trying to convince me to work on that 2nd opinion.

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