Diabetic Recipes
Kerri Morrone
I did an insulin pump infusion set site change this morning, by the ubiquitous lamp light on the dresser. My fiance (seven weeks until the wedding!) and I were talking about thresholds for pain and how I don't have much tolerance for emotional pain but my threshold for physical pain is high.
"I know. You can stick yourself with needles all day long but you freak out if you see a spider." He grinned at me.
"I know that needles aren't going to try and crawl on my head at night, that's for sure."
Looking at needles like these and inserting them fearlessly on a regular basis - and knowing that we all do some version of this in our diabetes management - makes me wonder if a high pain threshold is a "courtesy gift" that comes with this disease. Do you find yourself tolerating things that other people would get all squishy about, like a flu shot or even something as arbitrary as a stubbed toe?
Indeed, K.
The best example I can think of is the way I handled the pain of a compound wrist fracture - and the ensuing treatment. Once they put me back together, I had external fixation devices - poles that came out of my arm and were bolted together at the top - and I had fixation pins that poked through my skin but had a "t" shape - so the top came out of my skin. I used 2 of the pills from several bottles of vicodin provided at the hospital for the 8 weeks of having the contraptions. After one day and two of those pills, I realized that the pain - which should have been, as my doctor said, "nearly intolerable", wasn't THAT bad and could be easily controlled with an extra-strength Tylenol or two...
My father, a former Marine and cop, took me to the doctor when one of the pins had to be removed about halfway through the treatment. The top of one of the T pins had pretty much disappeared into swollen skin. I refused the novacaine because it seemed to me that the pain of the needle going into the area was worse than the pain of the procedures they'd been doing. They had to dig the pin out. It hurt - badly - enough, in fact for me to get teary. The doctor remarked afterward - "you didn't flinch. I'm kind of amazed." And my father told me on the way home, "Man, you are a brave kid. I've seen some bad things... But that was BAD."
I think high pain tolerance is definitely something we get with the package. Sucky as the package is.
I know I find myself getting frustrated with my friends that complain about going to the doctor for a simple blood test every 6 months. I always tell them to grow up and just get it done or they can trade places with me and do 8 shots a day on a good day and go get lab work done every 3 months and see a specialist for every body part they have and see whow they feel.
I always laugh at the people who like to tell me "I could never give myself a shot." I like to respond with "Well, then you would die".
I have never had a broken bone, so i dont know how i would react to that. But I have never taken more than an Advil for things like wisdom teeth being pulled or root canals. My husband on the other hand swears he is in agony after every dental procedure he has had done. I never attributed my tolerance for pain to diabetes, but hey, nature is an amazing thing. Maybe that’s her way of looking out for us.
You are point on. i fear nothing with a needle of any size. I recently had fluid trained from my knee- talk about a needle! Hospitals don't bother me- unless I am not the patient!
i do, however, have problems with vampires (phlebotomists) who are "gougers" and have trouble finding a vein. mostly because of the pain involved.
At work we had health checks where you had to have your finger poked and they drew a drop of blood. It was a very cold room and the little machines weren't working very well. When they told one lady she would have to have her finger poked for a third time, she started to bawl, seriously bawl. I wanted to slap her and tell her that there are 3 year olds out there doing this 15 times a day. I didn't though. I just sat quietly waiting for my results.