joyful2beeblogs

As a retired nurse, I had 37 years of experiencing, observing, relieving, and coping with pain. I have had experience in emotional and physical pain both personally and from the observation of loved ones, patients and friends.

I have had chronic, increasing pain from my back; post operative pain from abdominal surgery and from surgery on my heel. I have had loved ones suffer with chronic pain from diabetic neuropathy, that caused sudden, sharp, unpredictable pains in the middle of the night. Like most mothers, I have tended to my son’s injuries, splinters, bug bites and falls.

From my own observations, I learned that in spite of the old adage, “Ignorance is bliss.” I found in most situations and in most patients, the opposite was true: Ignorance causes fear and mistrust. If you are facing a painful experience, learn everything you can about it. Know your “dragon” and you may be able to control or live with it.

With children, I found that I could ask them to tell me about what had caused the pain. Then, I could get an estimate of how badly the wound treatment might feel; I would compare it to that pain. That way I could prepare them by knowing about how bad the pain was going to be, at least to some degree.  I think this works better with adults but may be useful for children.

The other bit of information that an adult needs to cope with is: “how long will the pain last?” Training for natural child birth with the Lamaze method, I was taught that labor contractions, when they are getting really noticeable, last only 30-45 seconds followed by a decrease in the amount of time and stronger contractions between them, followed by the birth.

So I figured, “Okay, I will watch the clock with each contraction.” And sure enough, I could handle anything for 30-45 seconds.” The knowledge of how long the pain was going to last gave me power over it, instead of fear and ignorance. Of course, when you don’t know how long the pain will last to begin with, fear of pain may soar to new levels.

For some people explaining what causes the pain can help alleviate the fear which can help the person manage the pain better. Learning from the victim we can find out if the pain is the sign of something serious or just routine post operative pain. This can help improve attitudes towards the pain by decreasing the fear of it and with surgical pains, they can be medicated with prescribed pain medicine.

The point of all of this is that pain and fear usually can be lessened by explaning to the person how to work with the above suggestions and give pain medicine as ordered.

The first suggestions are also good for kids. Ask them, “How much pain are you having?  On a scale of one to five, with a one as very little pain and a five as severe pain, how  would you rate your pain?” A one could equal a minor pain. A five could be severe pain, Between two and four it could range from soreness, or tenderness level up to almost intolerable. If the pain is severe and the pain is over a 5, ask,” If they can describe the pain they are having.”

I used the pain level numbers once long ago when my first son rode his bike down a steep hill and ended up in a briar patch. I carried him back to the house and treated his scratches, using the pain scale. That seemed to help him. He handled it all pretty well once he got cleaned up.

Another way of gauging pain is to ask if the pain is a sore kind of pain, a burning pain, a visible wound that obviously hurts at 3, 4, or 5 levels. That may help calm the child or adult and help them to handle the pain until you can care for their wounds.

With a child or hysterical adult, trying to get them to take deep breaths is a great first option to help them to relax. By hyper-oxygenation you can possibly calm and relax the victim more easily.

It’s not a bad idea to put them in a tub of tepid or warm water to clean the wound(s). Of course we have to clean the “booboos” and put a nice antibiotic ointment with no stinging on their wounds. I did this with my son when he was about six years old. He handled it all better than I had expected.

So pain tolerance may vary from person to person and age to age and sometimes one sex or the other will show varied expressions and feelings about pain. I hope this will help a  parent, parent or nurse.