← Return to Don't Want To Be a Complainer

Discussion

Don't Want To Be a Complainer

Chronic Pain | Last Active: Dec 29, 2021 | Replies (59)

Comment receiving replies
@ursweetpam

Hi my username is Ursweetpam. I can relate so much to what you are saying totally! My mother suffered for the last decade or so of her life with severe rheumatoid arthritis and back pain issues. She worked hard most of her life and even after she started having problems but it seemed that when we spoke, it was almost always about the pain. I used to get so upset sometimes because it became an all the time thing towards the end of her life. I just didn't have the experience yet to know what it mist have been like for her every day to wake up and feel that way for years. I used to believe she was a " complainer" Honestly, I don't think that she was. No other person can really judge how another feels. Even for the same kind of pain, it can be different. That us what makes us unique. We need to be more understanding when someone is hurting. I found out the hard way that she was probably suffering a great deal. I had a mucrodiscectomy/ laminectomy is 2015. I woke up to excruciating ,crushing pain in my back, left hip and my entire left leg. The surgeon said my back surgery was a fail because I had bone death to my vertibrate caused by undiagnosed severe osteoporosis and I have arachnoiditis that glued my nerve roots together and caused them to misfire. I never knew pain like that even existed! The surgeon also cut into my dura 3 times so I had to lay flat on my back for 24 hours and required 4 large blood patches. I couldn't walk far at all for 2 years because it turned out that my left hip and left pelvis was off center and out of the socket from the surgery to my back. I found i was always in pain and i talked about it a lot. My kids don't understand. They say that it's all I talk about and now I understand just what my mother was going through. I think that the pain Drs see so many people everyday and we all say we are in pain. They have become used to hearing it....so much so that they have lost empathy to our plight. I worry too if they think I am always complaining and if they think I am just seeking drugs (my pcp flagged me for that until she got the MRI tests back) You have to keep reminding yourself that you are just as impostant as everyone else. You know it's real and how bad it is for you...not everyone else. Maybe you do have a low tolerance for pain. So what! No one else lives inside you and you can't show anyone how you feel so let them judge and think what they want. Be honest and never stop looking for something that works for you. Until they are where you are, they can't possibly know what it's like. Hope this helps.

Jump to this post


Replies to "Hi my username is Ursweetpam. I can relate so much to what you are saying totally!..."

You are right. None of us can truly experience the pain of someone else. Rather, we must attempt to understand the difficulty, and listen carefully to their words. In fact, we must ask them directly, "What is it that I can do to help you?" Maybe the only thing is being a friend. And so be it. We cannot allow ourselves to leave someone lonely just because they voice their pain. Our strength must help to address their lack of it. God bless us every one.