On “That Patient Said Their Pain Is 10/10, But They’re Screwing Around On Their Cellphone, The Liar!”
Everyone expresses pain differently. Some people are really stoical. Like, really stoical. Like “walked on a broken leg for two days because they didn’t want to cause a fuss” stoical. Don’t underestimate that.
Pain expression is strongly influenced by culture. In some cultures, screaming and wailing is expected; in others, you wouldn’t do that even if you were being eaten by hyenas.
Men may be afraid that expressing pain too freely is unmanly; women may be afraid it would make them look “hysterical” and attention-seeking.
People with chronic pain conditions often get used to living their life while having pain, because it’s the only way they can get anything done. So they’re used to blotting out the pain and not expressing it dramatically.
Cellphones aren’t just toys, they’re communication devices. Someone who’s alone and in pain may be seeking comfort from friends or family via their cellphone, not just screwing around.
Or they may be seeking distraction from their pain by playing games and screwing around on the phone.
A lot of patients, especially (but not only) those who have neurological/psychiatric conditions or don’t speak English as a first language, have trouble conceptualizing a 0-10 pain scale. They may hear it as “if 0 is no pain, and 10 is pain, which one do you have?”
Other patients understand the scale, but are afraid they won’t be taken seriously if they say anything less than 10.
Of course some patients do lie about pain, for various reasons, but not nearly as many as some healthcare providers suspect. These are some important things to consider first.
I always have to explain to people that my level 3 is probably what they would call level 10. I was in so much pain at one point that a nurse though the BP monitor she used on me was broken and brought a new one, then when it showed a still horridly high BP she asked me worriedly “are you ok? you’re not acting like you’re in that much pain.” to which I had to explain that I got so used to pain that I don’t express it like other people.
Plus sometimes pain simply comes in waves, so just because you’re not in extreme pain this second doesn’t mean you weren’t in extreme pain 10 minutes ago, and whatever caused that pain still needs to be addressed.
I once went to the hospital with an episode of abdominal pain so severe I could hardly move, but by the time I was in an exam room it had subsided to almost nothing. However, the urinalysis showed a bacterial level “too high to count”, which meant that I had a kidney infection bordering on sepsis. Another time, I broke my ankle, but after an hour of sitting in the waiting room in a wheelchair, it didn’t really hurt at all - but it was still broken. Pain can come and go, it doesn’t mean there isn’t a problem.
theartofmadeline
pixelskylines
tangentwithtanner
prguitarman
kaledo-art
discoholicmusic
