Reflections

This is something that I started to think about yesterday, so I thought I'd put some thoughts down. My inspiration came up during a scene of "24" season 1 when one of the characters was having to deal with a broken arm, and was crying.

Last winter, I broke my left wrist after a motorcycle accident. After the accident, I managed to drive the motorcycle (and the left wrist operates the clutch to switch gears), I went home, and slept on it. The next morning, I finally threw in the towel and went to an urgent care center. But it was because I knew that the pain was not a sprain, and while it was not getting worse, it was not getting better. Never did the pain in my wrist never brought me to tears.

I was wondering if the years of the pain I suffered contributed in part to how I deal with pain. I'm not excited to experiment with this concept. By far, the most intense pain I've dealt with in recent memory was almost a year ago, when a botched spinal tap required the use of a blood patch. I left the spinal tap procedure okay (Friday), but by Saturday my head was so painful that I was confined to bed. Being confined to bed because of pain was nothing new, so I assumed it was a flare of my normal pain. By Sunday, I knew that this pain was a bit different, but still couldn't get up except to the couch. Monday, I called in sick, and by late morning, I tried to run a couple errands. I drove a few miles, but the pain was so vice like that I could barely hold my head up, so I turned back. Late Monday afternoon, my call was returned with instructions to get back to the clinic. I managed to drive the two miles to the clinic, and was told that I had a spinal leak and needed a blood patch. But by that point, I was quite sick, and it took a while to get a line in to even get my blood. Sure enough, I was able to situp after the patch, and walked out to carefully drive home.

But even though it was difficult to hold my head up, I only felt like I was going to throw up. In years past, by the time I'd been suffering with my pain, I'd actually be throwing up. I had been given IM Zofran since I'd throw up the pill version of the same medication.

I don't plan on having children, so I can toss out the idea if labor would be painful to me. But going on my sister's experience, my guess is that labor wouldn't be a problem for me. This is something that most people don't brag about - but I hope this helps explain things a bit better.