Pain

I'm feeling much better now, but last week I spent four of the worst days of my life from a strained back that led to a nasty case of sciatica. Laying in bed during one sleepless night, I found myself thinking of ways to describe what I was feeling:

• Agony
• White-hot
• Stabbing
• Throbbing
• Pulsating
• Endless
• Helpless

As the days wore on, I was able to compare what I was feeling from one day to the next. Better? Worse? The same? I could say without reservation that it was the worst pain I had ever felt on a continuous basis. However, there is no way anyone else can know the extent of the pain. To my knowledge, there is no "pain scale". Why? They have invented a measure of the heat from spicy peppers. It is called the Scoville scale. You can look up the difference between habaneros and jalapenos. But no "pain scale". Why not create one so we can know once and for all if sciatica is more painful than child birth. Or does it fit somewhere between finger nail removal and catching a hand in a car door? Things you think about at 3:00 AM.

Finally I went to a doctor and got pain pills. He gave me a non-refillable prescription since I was not his continuing patient. The first thing I thought of as I was gently falling asleep was, how to get a refill. What story will I need to tell the doctor in the next town? Will I become addicted? Since I didn't know what was wrong with me, I did not know how to get better. I was very scared.

Tomorrow it will be two weeks since the injury. I can't describe it in a way that will let you feel what I felt. But I can tell you that if the pain at its peak was a 10, it is now a 1. Relief is sweet.