Running with Crohn’s: Pain

Pain is an extremely personal and subjective experience.  An experience that debilitates one person from pain might not affect others nearly as strongly.  Furthermore, since people suffer from different ailments and experiences, we sometimes have trouble relating to each other’s experiences.

Over the last decade or two, hospitals introduced a simple pain chart and began asking patients to rate their pain on a scale of 0 – 10 (no pain to the worst possible pain).  As an engineering, I immediately began (in my mind at least) to try to develop an objective personal scale (note the oxymoron J ).

Hospital pain scale:

Today, I took the scale one-step further and attempted to place my experiences on this pain scale.  I do not know how well this describes my experiences because some of them (like fistula surgery) occurred recently, while others (like a pinched nerve and scratched cornea) occurred many years ago.  After my next kidney stone, I might have to move that pain up a few notches!

I also wish to draw attention that some experiences (e.g. typical Crohn’s cramping) possess several entries.  I did this because cramping on some days does not hurt as much as cramping on other days.  In addition, I experience three different types of cramping related to Crohn’s: cramping with the urge to defecate, cramping without the urge to defecate, and cramping due to a partial bowel obstruction.  The pain associated with these different cramps possesses a different character and different levels.

Bowel obstructions hurt much more than other types of cramping, however, I can now often notice a bowel obstruction “episode” beginning when I note a change in the type of bowel cramping.  This occurs before the pain increases to the level I associate with a bowel obstruction.

I present my pain scale which includes my experiences:



 

Pain scale
#	Hospital guide	My guide	My experience scale
0	No pain		This is always my goal for pain management
1		Noticeable but doesn't otherwise affect me
2	Mild	Annoying	Typical headache pain
		I consider taking OTC pain medication	Fistula seton placement pain
			Typical soreness for hard work out
3		Distracting	Typical headache pain
		Starts causing limping, if in legs	Typical Crohn's cramping
			Fistula seton placement pain
			Bee sting pain
			UTI pain
			Typical soreness for hard work out
4		Very distracting	Bad headache pain
		Usually doesn't wake me from sleep	Typical Crohn's cramping
		Causes limping, if in legs	Fistula seton placement pain
			Worst bee sting pain
			UTI pain
			Prostate ultrasound (w/ 2 5mg/500mg Vicadin)
5	Moderate	Begins to dominate my perspective	Worst UTI pain
		My ability to drive is impaired	Typical Crohn's cramping
		I consider taking Rx pain meds	Typical bowel obstruction pain
		Wakes me from sleep	Short-term pain from slamming finger in a door
			Maximum soreness from hard workout
6		Wakes me from sleep multiple times per night	Worst pain l experience from typical Crohn's cramping
			Typical bowel obstruction pain
			Worst pain from getting "wracked"
			Typical pain after "lay-open" fistula surgery w/ Rx pain meds
			Taking prostate biopsy sample (w/ 2 5mg/500mg Vicadin)
7		Unwilling to move or do much	Kidney stone passing through ureter
		Only able to doze without pain management	Typical bowel obstruction pain
			Eye pain from scratched cornea
8	Severe	Pain makes me unable to do more than minimal self-care	My worst migraine
		I seek hospital admission for pain management	I seek admission to hospital for bowel obstruction pain
		Only able to doze fitfully even with Rx pain killers	Pain during bowel movement after "lay-open" fistula surgery w/ Rx pain meds
			Eye pain from scratched cornea
			Bowel obstruction pain
9		Unable to do more than essential self-care	Pain from pinched nerve
		Unable to sleep at all without Rx pain killers	Worst eye pain from scratched cornea
			Bowel obstruction pain
10	Worst Possible	Immobilizes me	Worst bowel obstruction pain
		Only able to sleep with use of hospital grade pain killers	Pain I experienced from open abdominal surgery

Agree?  Disagree?  Tell me how you rate your painful experiences in life.

Pain is always subjective.  If you cannot function with your pain, then tell your doctor.  Demand to be treated for pain just like you would treat any other debilitating symptom.