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Hellweb Collage Deb Wiles Deb Wiles is a multidisciplinary visual artist and writer who lives and works in Toronto, Canada. Presently she runs an art school from her home studio, and paints like a mad thing. You may check out her artwork, read press about her work, and / or contact her by visiting her website at www.debwiles.com |
The Scale of Pain
Sept. 19, 2008Deb Wiles
You're in pain, and the doctor asks you: "On a scale from 1 to 10, how much does it hurt?"
You panic, thinking…."What scale, I don't even know the scale, and here I am being asked this important question and am not sure I'll get the right answer. Does it hurt, yes, but how much, hum, I'm not sure. Is there an objective scale, or do we answer subjectively as the question seems to demand? But if I answer subjectively how can I know that the doctor will have a sympathetic scale? Although a doctor probably does share the same scale with me as human to human, does his job actually affect how he rates my pain? If so, then shall I exaggerate and answer 'eight', instead of the modest 'five' I was imagining I was experiencing? Would this make me a pain con?
Docs make decisions about who receives treatment and when. They see suffering each day, it's their job. Who is in more pain? Is it an emergency? That person has a knife sticking out of their skull, while another claims to have the feeling of a knife in their gut: who is in more pain? Is a knife in the head a 10 on the scale of pain? Or is gastrointestinitis? Doctors prioritize pain.
What is pain?
My friend G & I were discussing it; he figures emotional pain is worse, it lasts for longer. True, and physical pain we forget. I've heard it said that "if a woman remembered the pain of childbirth, she'd never have a second child." I collect scar stories and a number of years ago a friend, D, was putting her story down, including pictures, and when she was finished, her boyfriend wrote his down. He wrote about an emotional scar; she gave him hell about it, emotional scars are besides the point. They linger, but we don't talk about them much. Who wants to read a book about emotional scars, ick.
When the doctor asks you, "How much does it hurt?", do you answer, "About as much as being tirelessly harassed by schoolmates daily for four years when I was a teenage girl,"? No, you do not.
Does childbirth rate as a 10 on the pain scale? And if it does, then what would it be for women who have never experienced it, or for men who never will? Is a 10 for men like losing a limb? My friend L suggested that for men a 10 is a little scratch on their finger; don't yell at me, she said it, most men I know are braver than that, at least more macho.
Also in conversation with L, she said "So what is a 1 then, does 1 even hurt? Is it like a lick?"
OK, we've coined the scale of pain:
number 1 feels like someone giving you a lick,
number 10 is natural childbirth.
I'm adding up the numbers….
Oh oh.
Note to self, avoid the Licker.
ps. By the way, I'm still collecting scar stories so if any of you Forget the Spin fans would like to send me a scar story (no more than 100 words!) and a jpeg of the scar your story is about (not larger than 300K!) , feel free: wilesweb@gmail.com! And no emotional scar stories please!
You panic, thinking…."What scale, I don't even know the scale, and here I am being asked this important question and am not sure I'll get the right answer. Does it hurt, yes, but how much, hum, I'm not sure. Is there an objective scale, or do we answer subjectively as the question seems to demand? But if I answer subjectively how can I know that the doctor will have a sympathetic scale? Although a doctor probably does share the same scale with me as human to human, does his job actually affect how he rates my pain? If so, then shall I exaggerate and answer 'eight', instead of the modest 'five' I was imagining I was experiencing? Would this make me a pain con?
Docs make decisions about who receives treatment and when. They see suffering each day, it's their job. Who is in more pain? Is it an emergency? That person has a knife sticking out of their skull, while another claims to have the feeling of a knife in their gut: who is in more pain? Is a knife in the head a 10 on the scale of pain? Or is gastrointestinitis? Doctors prioritize pain.
What is pain?
My friend G & I were discussing it; he figures emotional pain is worse, it lasts for longer. True, and physical pain we forget. I've heard it said that "if a woman remembered the pain of childbirth, she'd never have a second child." I collect scar stories and a number of years ago a friend, D, was putting her story down, including pictures, and when she was finished, her boyfriend wrote his down. He wrote about an emotional scar; she gave him hell about it, emotional scars are besides the point. They linger, but we don't talk about them much. Who wants to read a book about emotional scars, ick.
When the doctor asks you, "How much does it hurt?", do you answer, "About as much as being tirelessly harassed by schoolmates daily for four years when I was a teenage girl,"? No, you do not.
Does childbirth rate as a 10 on the pain scale? And if it does, then what would it be for women who have never experienced it, or for men who never will? Is a 10 for men like losing a limb? My friend L suggested that for men a 10 is a little scratch on their finger; don't yell at me, she said it, most men I know are braver than that, at least more macho.
Also in conversation with L, she said "So what is a 1 then, does 1 even hurt? Is it like a lick?"
OK, we've coined the scale of pain:
number 1 feels like someone giving you a lick,
number 10 is natural childbirth.
I'm adding up the numbers….
Oh oh.
Note to self, avoid the Licker.
ps. By the way, I'm still collecting scar stories so if any of you Forget the Spin fans would like to send me a scar story (no more than 100 words!) and a jpeg of the scar your story is about (not larger than 300K!) , feel free: wilesweb@gmail.com! And no emotional scar stories please!
