PAIN. In caps, is not toothache pain, not even root canals without lidocaine. This is the kind of unrelenting, debilitating, thought-squelching chronic-acute pain that no medication on this earth can erase.
When you are on the outside looking in, it is impossible to understand, but it doesn't seem to stop some people from making judgements. If you don't have a big gaping bloody wound to go with the amount of pain that is being experienced, well then, it must be either in your head or it's being greatly exaggerated.
Even your closest loved ones can't understand it. Relationships snap under the strain of misunderstanding why someone can't be touched the same way or do the same things any more. Long married couples that were close and did things together, whether it was bowling, camping or dancing then one of them can no longer participate. They now must navigate a difficult adjustment to their new relationship. The partnership doesn't always survive. Strangely, the healthier partner often feels that if he or she really loved him or her they would continue with their lives as before. After all, it is only pain and everyone has some pain some times.
PAIN, though is the pain that is the raw nerve endings being abused. No matter which disease you have, and there are many, ultimately it is the involvement of the nerve endings that causes the untenable type of pain that only opiates give any relief. Imagine someone taking a pair of pliers and pinching your spinal cord as hard as they can. If you haven't had that kind of pain I know it would be hard to even imagine how incredibly awful it would feel, but it does give you a visual of what it's like.
The toll the pain takes is so multi leveled. I mentioned opiates earlier and they need further discussion. I'm not going into the whole receptors thing now but just know that a person who is in unrelenting chronic-acute pain uses opiates to take the sharp edges off the jagged peaks of their pain. The meds do not take away the pain, but it helps to make life bearable. That is why people in severe pain do not get "high" taking opiates, because in effect they are replacing the natural pain relievers that were used up and are necessary for the huge amount of pain that the person is experiencing. This is where a good Pain Management MD comes in to make that judgment call.
Sadly, every time some high profile name abuses these drugs just to get high, it sets back people who truly do need treatment from always getting what they need.
I just touched on the surface of PAIN. The stories of people not getting the help they needed, lives being flipped upside down and the realization that this is just the beginning of the rest of their lives in pain, are unending. But there is always hope on the horizon from extraordinary discoveries in pain management.
