Part three of the Ouch! series.
Our second pain management session started off with a rather gruesome picture.
Don’t worry, I’m not going to show it to you and by the time you’ve read this you’ll have enough info to google it for yourself (if you like that sort of thing)!
Up on the screen was a picture of a workman’s boot with a giant nail going right through the sole and out through the top.
Ouch!
The physio leading our session shared the story behind the picture. Back in 1995, the British Medical Journal included a report about a 29-year-old man, working on a building site, who jumped onto a plank. What he hadn’t spotted was the 15 cm nail attached to the plank which proceeded to go straight through his boot.
In shock and excruciating pain, the man was rushed to A&E as he cried out for anything that would take the pain away!
He was plied with a range of strong painkillers and the doctors carefully removed the nail and the boot…
only to discover…
that the nail had completely missed the workman’s foot!
There wasn’t even a scratch!
So, was the pain all in his head?
Was he imagining it?
This poor workman saw a nail sticking through the top of his boot and his brain made a decision…
THAT REALLY HURTS!
Despite the lack of actual damage, the nervous system went into protection mode firing off signals across the body, letting every nerve ending know that there was an emergency. The brain didn’t know the difference between a real threat and a perceived threat, and the same protective procedures kicked into gear.
Pain is a complicated thing.
It’s not always fixed with a couple of paracetamols, a course of physio and an ointment from a Facebook ad. Acute pain usually follows these kinds of rules and, with the right treatment, will gradually disappear as the body heals and the pain gently fades away.
Chronic pain is a totally different ball game.
It isn’t long-term acute pain.
Generally, nothing is waiting to heal, there doesn’t need to be specific damage and, according to research, even the strongest painkillers have limited impact. Chronic pain taps into the system we saw earlier with the workman and his boot. Every perceived threat is interpreted as an actual threat and sets off a protective reaction in the body that creates pain. The brain is trying to tell the person there is danger, but there is none. Like a car alarm setting off simply because someone walked past, chronic pain creates an over-sensitivity to the smallest of sensations.
Why am I telling you this?
1) Because the physio asked us to tell as many people as we could so that they have a better understanding of pain
2) Because it might help you to support someone in your life who is dealing with chronic pain.
Whatever worked the time you went over on your ankle or pulled a muscle probably isn’t going to work for your friend suffering from chronic pain. Once long-term pain has set in, it can be extremely difficult to reset the nervous system and turn down the volume on both the frequency and intensity of the pain.
We are being oversensitive but not in the way you might think.
Our bodies are constantly telling us that we’ve just stepped on a 15 cm nail, but all the traditional ways we’ve been taught to make the pain stop are totally ineffective. That’s why we get sent on pain management courses, where we discover what is happening to our bodies and how we can work alongside our pain instead of constantly battling against it. I’m sharing what I’m learning as I go through each session, as it might help someone spot the early signs of chronic pain and get the right help.
Rather than our pain being an indication of weakness, we are absolute nails (see what I did there)!
These blogs are different to what I usually write, and I don’t just want to crowbar a Bible verse in at the end…she says before doing exactly that… 😊
I did genuinely sit in the session and marvel at how amazing the human body is.
Although my protective pain system is working against me at the moment, I’m still fascinated by its complexity and the intricacies of the interlinking systems within it. The words of Psalm 139 have come to mind in many circumstances in my life, but I never expected to recall them in a pain management course.
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
Psalm 139:13-14 NIV
Even in this season of chronic pain, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made”.
Maybe, through this course, God is encouraging me to gain a new understanding of how my body works and to learn how to take care of it in a new way.
Kay Moorby
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