Pain is a wonderful thing. There, we said it. Yes, it is — sometimes.
Pain hurts us, and pain also keeps us safe. It tells us what to avoid. We do not step in fires. We wear clothes with gloves in the snow. Burning from hot — and cold — is bad for our body parts farthest from us and first to touch the dangers of the world outside of us.* Fingers and toes are important because losing them makes life hard, whether we are picking up food or running from saber-toothed tigers.
Unless you live under a Bronze Age legal code (not yet, at least) even the worst offenders in this life generally get to keep their bodies intact, no matter our crime. Nowadays, we even execute people before cutting off any of their pieces and parts. Now that is really odd. Talk about a contradiction: “cruel and unusual punishment” dictates that we cannot cut off a finger for justice, but we can take a whole human life?
So, we take pain very seriously. And too much of any good thing causes trouble. We only need a little pain to guide us to safety. And our bodies hurt a lot more than we need to stay alive and safe. Fun and joy, positive reinforcements, would be a lot better. It would be awful if pain were the only thing assuring us that we are still living. Pain definitely outlives its welcome. Pain can become so teeth-grittingly and tear-sobbingly awful that we just want it to stop and stop, no matter what.
There are so many herbs, medicines and treatments to ease pain developed over the last thousands of years that it is nearly impossible talk about treatment here. Where would we even start? We all experience pain differently. People have different thresholds for when they start to feel and, more importantly, when they start to be bothered by it. One person’s dying ache is another patient’s twinge of, “Oh well, it’s one of those days.”
Your doctor and healer may ask you to give a number from one to five or 10 to rate how bad the pain is. They should ask you what makes it better and worse, and what activities you can not do. And for chronic pains that do not end, they may ask what your goals are now, in spite of the pain. These point to diagnoses and treatments. They help us to know if treatments are working and how much better your you feel. It matters if it’s sharp or dull, and if it is in one spot or all over. It can grow slowly, or it can come and go in waves over minutes or days. Even normally painless activities like touching or smelling, can hurt.
Yet, even though healers are trained for all kinds of hurt, it is the sudden pain that leads to the doctor’s call. Lost limbs can feel hurt even after they are cut off and are no longer physically there. But those lost limbs still exist as ghosts in our brains; this is called “phantom pain.” Many pains such as this never go away. Sometimes our bodies remember too much. Brains are more than small, wet, physical computing balls of jelly (a technical term is “wetware” instead of software). We do not let go.
By living through our miraculous brains we feel a lot more than just physical pain and joy. What are the other components of our pain? Sure, pain touches us and we feel it. But we also react to pain with emotions. Pain makes us sad, anxious, angry and depressed. We also look for thoughts to explain our pain. Why do we hurt? What does it mean? Who do we blame? What excuses do we make? Honestly, the big questions often become: how does it make sense to us, and what do we do now?
Pain can distress us, or it may just distract us. It has pushed some people to new levels of awareness and achievement. But it usually gives us excuses — or we use it to make excuses — for not being who we are. There are many other reactions we can have to our pain. Again, pain can be good when it helps us, until it becomes too much of a good thing and hurts us by holding us back. This is the chronic, unending pain which healers wrestle with the most.
And we accompany our patients through their painful journeys. Pain may be the opposite of joy, but joy and pain — and how we respond to them — both become signposts to our bedrocks of change in our lives. Yes, pain stinks. Pain causes terrible suffering. We are not diminishing the truly awful hurt of pain in any way. Good doctors learn that we cure rarely, comfort often and can still care always. Sometimes, all we can do is make lemonade, even when the lemons are sour and we are out of sugar. There is a place of balance and a place for pain to be seen as bad with good, dark and light, even a yin to one’s yang.
I would take a sharp, sudden pain that may go away over a dull, cramping, never-ending pain. One tells us that we are alive and our body may be trying to heal. The other can feel like a desperate, despairing, half-living death. Sharp pains can come from working our bodies hard; we are stretched, bruised or even torn just a little, hopefully growing back stronger as we heal. But when sharp, new pains shift to dull, constant pains, these are the really bad ones. These are chronic pains wrapped up in anxiety, no sleep and depression. These are the pains that persist long after our injury heals. These pains no longer help us; they drag us down and make us desperate for relief. These are the ones that lead our friends and family into dependencies and addiction.
These two general types of pains — sharp or dull, short or long, acute or chronic — guide us in how we treat them and how we take care of you. Remember that life is easier — and much safer — when we do not go it alone. So, call your doctor and find a good healer when you hurt. Good ones really can help keep you safe. They may even help you to feel better.
More next month.
*Yes, our eyes and other senses can tell our hearts and minds of dangers and other awfulnesses from beyond our fingertips’ touch that may hurt our hearts and souls from farther away outside our reach. But that is a very different topic for another metaphysical day.
Dr. Stefan Topolski is an academic physician and country doctor serving Franklin County. Dr. Topolski welcomes any questions you may have at public@cottagemed.org. His opinion is for educational and informational purposes and should not be used for diagnosing or treating any health problem without first consulting with a licensed physician. Never disregard or delay seeking professional medical care because of something that you read. The views expressed here are those of the writer, their research colleagues and no other organization.