Pain Tolerance

Haha the quote I could thnk of was the Bene Gesserit litany against fear

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain

(from Frank Herbert's Dune. Good series. First book was amazing)
Oddly enough, Paul (The main character) used this mantra quite a bit against pain and the fear it brings with it.

Perhaps I'm the same way, but in my words I listen to my pain. I don't take pain killers unless my work or sleep is inhibited by it. I feel that by taking pain killers I'm dulling my sense of the world. Or that I'll become intolerant to pain if I pop it at the first sign that something may happen lol. I figure, by experiencing pain, if the time comes, I will be ready for that moment when pain canNOT matter to save my own life or that of another.

I went through a motorcycle wreck a few years back. (I was not at fault! ) even hyped up on pain killers my body was nearly passing out from the pain. It took six months of physical therapy to get me back up in running condition again. Six months where I pushed my body past its current limits and into pain. Pain and I are good buddies. He tells me when something is wrong. Or I'm doing something wrong. I've started running in minimalistic toe shoes about two years ago and pain taught me to run properly. (and now I'm without pain when I run most time ..at least joint pain haha) Now put me on the four-mile treck we have and I'll be hurting at the end but I can make it LOL.

My lower back is a wreck...a slipped disk, a compressed disk, and sciattica all between lumbars 4,5,and 6...I'm supposed to take vicodin(pain killer) and flexoril(muscle relaxer)...I never take the painkillers because they do nothing for the pain and just make me sick, and I seldom take the muscle relaxers as they put me to sleep...most of the time my will power and focus is all I need to get through the pain...and once I've experienced a pain I won't notice it the next time...I used to get a persistent hangnail...had it surgically removed 3 times...finally I just started removing it myself... I went 3 days with a perforated appendix and thought it was just stomach cramps...even played tackle football on day 2...

I don't like to talk about my weaknesses. I've been living with the muscle & joint pain along with muscle weakness and cramps for about 10 years and it has grown worse every year.. The Dr finaly said it's fibromyalgia due to cronic stress. (but that's another thread)

Pain is no stranger to me. I live with it and fight back. I win some battles but am unsure if I'm winning the war, proabably not but I won't stop trying. I'll be changing my tactics as necessary to deal with it.

If you met me in person you'd never know. I'm vigorious in my outdoor activities and am considered a successful business person. I have a wide spectrum of interests I pursue.

Why am I saying this?

Because you just can't give up trying!! You can sit and do nothing and feel pain or you can go live you life and feel pain. I choose to live my life. Heck it's only pain.

I can't complain too much. (no one really likes to here complaints anyway) There are people that are worse off then me. Blind, deaf, no arms, no legs, paraplegics.... They do lots of stuff. (Who's that real smart guy in a wheelchair?) Who am I to complain?

I'm just going to do the best I can and keep moving.

So can you.

Stephen Hawking. One of the smartest, if not THE smartest man alive. Hawking has a motor neuron disease related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). (This is pasted from Wikipedia). He is in constant pain every day and only he knows how it feels as pain is different to each person.

I agree though. People are able to handle some pains and cower to others. I have been able to endure blowing both my knees out, getting stabbed, having reconstructive knee surgery. But when my gall bladder got infected and had to be taken out, it was the most pain I've ever been in. I couldn't breath, couldn't sit, couldn't lay down, couldn't move around. It was a constant pain that literally took my breath away and left me in agony. Not something I care to feel again. My real pain weakness though, my mouth. If I get a sore in my mouth or bite my cheek/tongue. I hate it. And don't even get me started on the Dentist...

Everyone is different on this one. I suffer more from emotion than physical ailment. Physical is just something I accept...emotional seems somehow more oppressive.

Emotional pain is much more difficult to deal with. Physical pain sources can usually be identified and delt with. The source of emotional pain is intangable. Can't see them in a x ray can you. I think the worse thing we can do is ignore our emotions. Out of sight is not out of mind. Repressing them concentrates them like pressure in a bottle. Our emotions are both a cuurse and blessing. .

Physical pain is an interesting mechanism. While the science would tell us it is the result of electrical impulses being fired across neurons, I can't help but think there has to be something exclusively mental about it as well.

I'll give you an example. My step-sister had her leg removed above the knee after she was in a skiing accident and the x-rays revealed a cancerous tumor. For quite some time afterward she continued to "feel" her missing foot and experienced an emotional longing for it. Not a longing to be able to walk again, but a desire to feel whole.

Once she was fitted with a prosthetic, the physical pain she experienced in her "phantom foot" disappeared and she felt emotionally connected to the metal and plastic piece that technically wasn't a part of her.

Even though both her missing foot and the prosthetic foot were incapable of sending pain signals to her brain, she experienced physical and emotional pain as well as relief from the pain none the less. It lives in her mind, and the mind can be a powerful and mysterious thing.

I havent been through something as bad as a car wreck, or a big accident. I think the worst Ive been through before was a horribly ingrown toenail, one Ive had removed many times and had kinda learned to take care of on my own till it got worse. My next doctors visit they had decided to remove my toenail entirely... it was becoming to badly infected. My big toe was completely red and swollen, and the points where both sides of my toenail were ingrown were purple on either side of my toe... I learned to deal with pain and decided to procrastinate my doctor visits for a long time, causing this infection. I was really nervous to get it removed and knew it would be painful. The pain kills the doctors have always used on me never have worked to well. But I finally decided to get it done, and to be short and no so graphic, it was successfully accomplished and my toenail is on its way to growing back. I always thought of myself to have high pain tolerance when i was younger... almost like I was impervious. As I get older i find pain not to be a thing of tolerance, but to be humbling. Reminds me Im human like everyone else. And that its a part of life, and sometimes we have to suffer/stand up to it to get better or reach our goals. I guess in a sort, and slightly off topic, from this I also see Procrastination as pain. Procrastination of any sort only hurts yourself more, mentally and physically.

Malcolm Serenity wrote: "That which does not kill us makes us stronger."

I prefer "That which doesn't kill me had better start runnin'."

As for pain tolerance, I'm a walking male stereotype. You could probably cut my arms off and I'd whine a little, but if I get a tummyache or the sniffles, I demand a My Little Pony marathon and some chicken soup and to be waited on hand and foot because ITHURTSSOBAAAAAD!.

Or, at least, that's how *I* see it. Other people see some of the stuff I've been through and flip out. Crowbars to the back of the head make me angry, my first concussion left me giggling, and both my dentist and my chiropractor thought it was a miracle I could walk around without downing a bottle of pain pills every day, much less do some of the other crap I do.

When you deal with it for a while, you get used to it. One of my long-term problems was surgically fixed recently, and I never realized how much pain I was in until I wasn't anymore--kinda like how you don't realize how big your couch is til you see the empty space on your carpet after move.