As the pain was getting unbearable for him, he became numb. This paradoxical effect of pain was new to us but not to him. His journey of pain care has taken him from doctor to doctor to get some relief so he could even eat, walk, and sleep.
He was suffering from spinal stenosis with arthritis. He had undergone physical therapies and diagnostics. He followed his primary care doctor's plan and the pain management specialist's recommendations. The trials of topicals, oral medications, and injections were not cutting through the intensity of his pain.
Then the other day on his follow-up clinic visit, he announced that he accepted a life living with pain. That was the day when a verb became a noun for him as he phrased it.
As he was talking about his companionship with pain, he expressed his regrets about pain management in the healthcare system. He described his experiences with pain management specialists as non-comprehensive procedure-based. They just want you to have an injection.
To some, pain is a non-verbal communication, a warning to watch out, a construct of the brain, a noun that acts like a verb and pushes one to initiate an action.
Others take pain as it is. They claim to have a high pain tolerance, making one wonder about the why of their threshold of pain, whether they are gifted or they became numb.
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