Common Threads: "your most intense physical pain"; rebuttal to @joshua-pace

This post is a lengthy comment on @joshua-pace 's Common Threads series and his post of physical pain in particular. Which you can read here;

https://steemit.com/life/@joshua-pace/common-threads-tell-us-about-your-most-intense-physical-pain

"In our last Common Thread, we talked about our most Embarrassing Moments--moments that cause us intense psychological pain, grief, and regret. Today I want to talk about physical pain. Whether by malevolent intent, dumb luck or our own stupidity, we have all experienced intense pain and suffering—it’s part of the human condition and it’s a common thread that unites us all. Let’s share our stories..."

Ruptured ear drums are probably one of the worst pains because there is nothing you can really do to soothe it. Just like ribs, it either heals, or it doesn't. I feel for both you and @chelsea88.

My worst pain is something I hesitate to talk about most of the time because most people can't begin to fathom it and I usually get a "deer in the headlights" look.

I live with the chronic pain of Degenerative Disc Disease and the pins/screws in my ankle, so I have a pretty high threshold for pain. I've also brought 5 beautiful children into this world, two births were c-section, 2 natural, one with pain meds, one without. I've also had my gall bladder removed. Surgical pain is something I am very familiar with. My last surgery, however, blew every other pain I have ever known right out of the water. Let me explain.

Shortly after the birth of my first son, I went to my OB for my 6 month "well check". He ran the usual tests and mine came back with some abnormal cells. Rather than take a chance, my husband and I decided to do what is called a LEEP. Basically, they take an electrified wire and cut away the abnormal/precancerous cells from your cervix to prevent the possibility of it turning into cancer. Everything was fine after that. I had my daughter 18 months later. I had more problems after her birth. I was put on hormone therapy to kick start my system. Then along came the twins two years after that. Followed by my youngest son 28 months after them. At which point I had my tubes tied and we were "done".

Sometime in 2014, I began to get sick, really sick. Every month was like giving birth all over again. I would get severely weak, anemic, and suffered from horrible cramps. This continued to get worse and worse until I was literally in bed for a week every month. I finally broke down in January of 2015 and went to the most wonderful OB/GYN I have ever seen. (If anyone is in the Johnstown PA area and needs help, contact Dr.Albert Mall and tell him I sent you).

He ran a few tests, but it didn't take him long to figure it out. I had a tumor inside my uterus about the size of a softball. He did a biopsy to determine if it was benign or malignant. The 3 days spent waiting for those results were the worst of my life. My youngest was in 1st grade, I didn't want to think of about my husband having to raise them alone.

Luckily, the news was good. The tumor was benign, but it was stuck so tightly to the wall of my uterus, that the only course of action was a hysterectomy. The only decision was when, and whether it would be a full or partial. We went back and forth but decided that, in the end, this was strike two and we did not want to even contemplate a strike three, it all had to go.

We scheduled the surgery for the first week of March 2015. I was still so anemic that we had to have the blood bank on notice should I need a transfusion since I am type O negative (thanks, dad LOL). I am also extremely allergic to Morphine and most NSAIDs so find pain medications for me is a royal pain (pun intended). Now, here is where things go horribly wrong.

The doctor ordered a synthetic Morphine substitute for post surgery, but because I was allergic to the real thing, the nurses refused to give it to me. They had no alternatives on the women's floor, so I laid there, without any kind of pain medication, just having had my stomach cut open from one hip to the other and stapled back together, for a total of 8 HOURS while my husband and my doctor (who was in surgery with another patient most of that time)railed, screamed, and threatened the entire nursing staff, the RN in charge of the floor, and finally an administrator who got the bright idea to run down 2 floors to the Oncology floor and "borrow" 2 vials of IV Stadol.

There was nothing in any of the other painful moments of my life that could have prepared me for the pain that those 8 hours cost me. I don't know if I can even begin to explain it. I don't remember much of that time because apparently, I passed out several times. According to my doctor, when he first saw me, I was already going on 6 hours post-op and I was curled on my side, my right hand locked around the bed rail, nails white, and whimpering in my "sleep". It was beyond searing, beyond stabbing, beyond anything explainable. I would never wish that kind of pain on anybody.

My own doctor said I should have sued the hospital and the individual nurses who left me to lay there like that, especially after he talked to a few of them. But I couldn't do it. Conemaugh hospital is a teaching hospital and most of the nurses on that ward were still in school. Something like that would have ruined their careers before they ever got started. I could only hope that the experience helped those girls to have a better empathy for their patients.

I, on the other hand, have come to the conclusion that I will not EVER go back under the knife voluntarily. It would have to be life and death, and you still better sedate me and have my husband sign the paperwork.

So, there you have it. One very long story on my worst physical pain. I hope I didn't bore anyone too much. It was a pretty defining moment in my life.

I want to thank Joshua for this series. Common Threads are the ties that remind us we are all human and it's nice to see people sharing those experiences to form new threads of understanding and empathy.♥

~Tabz
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