Check the pain...

Okay this will be a weird post but a conversation I had with Alex this morning made me start thinking about how people gauge their pain. I mean, what is an acceptable amount of pain. Never having really been pain free, I honestly don't know. When I was a kid I got hit by a car which wrecked up my left knee somewhat and now, as a grown up, I have arthritis in that knee. It hurts every day and, on days when it's cold and damp, it KILLS. I choke down a couple of Ibuprofen and get on with the day but, the point is, I'm in almost constant pain because of this.

Occasionally, I'll have aches and pains that crop up in other parts of my body for no good reason. You know, stuff like, lower back pain, strange ankle pain, and today my right hand is aching because I slept on it. I suppose the Ibuprofen would work for that too but I'm not sure exactly how to know when a pain is such that it warrants taking something.

I guess you can't go by me or my standards. I come from hearty stock that rarely, if ever, sees a doctor unless we simply cannot stand it anymore. My mother, when she was in her 70s, clearly needed hip replacement surgery but she went on for over a year wincing in pain until the day she could barely walk. That was her cue. She had the surgery and it was fine. I guess I get my attitude from her. Not every pain I feel is cause for a trip to the doc but, again I ask, how does one really know?

I know pain isn't normal...right? Or is it? Don't we all on any given day feel those twinges and tweaks of pain somewhere or another in our bodies? Anyway, as I'm writing this my hand is aching and my knee is throbbing because there is going to be a change in the weather. Yes, I am a human barometer.

I suppose, in reality, we should not feel pain or expect to feel pain on a daily basis. I guess since I have never really been pain free since I was about 9 years old I have a hard time even imagining that! And I can't use my experience to begin to understand what somewhat else might be going through.

Anyway, I was just thinking about this stuff. You know, sometimes stuff like this gets stuck in my head.