How good are you at describing pain? Here’s why that’s important. Plus how to talk to your doctor about pain.
Whether it’s a badly skinned knee on the playground, the gripping pangs of childbirth, or the nagging aches of arthritis, we’ve all experienced our fair share of physical pain. People are pretty tough when it comes to pain. Some even believe it builds character and a stiff upper lip. But what we’re not so good at is talking about it—or admitting that we hurt.
When Silence Isn’t Golden
Describing pain to your doctor can be surprisingly difficult, says Micke Brown, R.N., a former pain management nurse and director of communications at the American Pain Foundation. For starters, pain is completely subjective. Plus, people aren’t always sure how to describe it, or they don’t want to be thought of as weak. And if you can’t effectively tell your doctor how much pain you’re in, she says, it could get in the way of getting the medical care you need.
That’s what happened to Ann Abbott, a senior creative director in Cincinnati, whose stomach pains landed her in the emergency room. “I was doubled over. I thought I had the stomach flu,” she says. But when the triage nurse checked her in, Abbott put on a brave face. “I was hunched over in the chair, trying to keep my cool. I felt embarrassed for being there, and I remember saying, ‘I’m okay.’”
Because of her nonchalant attitude, Abbott had to wait several more hours to be examined by a doctor. Once the medical team performed a CT scan, they rushed her to surgery. The diagnosis: appendicitis. The doctors told Abbott that her appendix was extremely distended and very close to bursting, but because she “didn’t act sick enough,” they hadn’t realized her case was that severe.
In the U.S., the most common reason people ages 15 or older go to the emergency department is chest or abdominal pain.
Tell It Like It Is
Underreporting your symptoms can be a real problem. “People don’t like to let on that they’re in pain,” says David Ross, D.O., an emergency physician at Penrose–St. Francis Health Services in Colorado Springs. In fact, it’s much more common for people to underestimate their pain than overestimate it, he says.