For Those Without Chronic Pain

TIPS FOR DEALING WITH PEOPLE IN PAIN

1. People with chronic pain seem unreliable (we can’t count on ourselves). When feeling better we promise things (and mean it); when in serious pain, we may not even show up.

2. An action or situation may result in pain several hours later, or even the next day. Delayed pain is confusing to people who have never experienced it.

3. Pain can inhibit listening and other communication skills. It’s like having someone shouting at you, or trying to talk with a fire alarm going off in the room. The effect of pain on the mind can seem like attention deficit disorder. So you may have to repeat a request, or write things down for a person with chronic pain. Don’t take it personally, or think that they are stupid.

4. The senses can overload while in pain. For example, noises that wouldn’t normally bother you, seem too much.

5. Patience may seem short. We can’t wait in a long line; can’t wait for a long drawn out conversation.

6. Don’t always ask “how are you” unless you are genuinely prepared to listen it just points attention inward.

7. Pain can sometimes trigger psychological disabilities (usually very temporary). When in pain, a small task, like hanging out the laundry, can seem like a huge wall, too high to climb over. An hour later the same job may be quite OK. It is sane to be depressed occasionally when you hurt.

8. Pain can come on fairly quickly and unexpectedly. Pain sometimes abates after a short rest. Chronic pain people appear to arrive and fade unpredictably to others.

9. Knowing where a refuge is, such as a couch, a bed, or comfortable chair, is as important as knowing where a bathroom is. A visit is much more enjoyable if the chronic pain person knows there is a refuge if needed. A person with chronic pain may not want to go anywhere that has no refuge (e.g.no place to sit or lie down).

10. Small acts of kindness can seem like huge acts of mercy to a person in pain. Your offer of a pillow or a cup of tea can be a really big thing to a person who is feeling temporarily helpless in the face of encroaching pain.

11. Not all pain is easy to locate or describe. Sometimes there is a body-wide feeling of discomfort, with hard to describe pains in the entire back, or in both legs, but not in one particular spot you can point to. Our vocabulary for pain is very limited, compared to the body’s ability to feel varieties of discomfort.

12. We may not have a good “reason” for the pain. Medical science is still limited in its understanding of pain. Many people have pain that is not yet classified by doctors as an officially recognized “disease”. That does not reduce the pain, – it only reduces our ability to give it a label, and to have you believe us.

AUTHOR UNKNOWN

Puppies!

We've been looking to get a couple Australian Shepherds or Border Collies for a long while. Well, a friend told me about a lady on a farm who had some puppies for sale. I contacted her and I had intended to get just one puppy. Only two girls were born, both reds. One was a light red bi and the other a liver tri. The boys were all black bi. When I went to the farm, I was greeted by the pups' dad. A gorgeous red bi, a color between the two pups I would see. I saw the light red pup immediate ans she came romping up to me with the other female right behind her. I picked up the light red and she was so adorable and gave me kisses. I KNEW she was the one I wanted! Then, I felt something on my leg. The little liver tri was standing, her front paws on my leg looking up at me. My heart melted! I picked her up too and got the same greeting.

All puppies are cute, I think all dog lovers can agree! I was torn, I could only afford one pup and I didn't know which one to choose! Well, the lady, who was not a breeder, saw my torment and told me to take both for one price. REALLY?! Holy shit! I couldn't thank her enough! I didn't have to choose! And I don't know many exclamation points I can use in this paragraph! I was just so thrilled! I still am!

So I take both girls home and since the kids were coming home soon, and honestly these were going to be THEIR pups. They had each been begging for their own dogs for AGES! Anyway, my son would be first one home which meant he'd get to choose his puppy. I knew my daughter, she wouldn't care which one she got as long as she got one!

As we waited,  I set up the baby gate and put the pups in there with some potty pads. Our cat was real quick to meet the new members of the family and jumped in the corral with them. Brave cat! But I guess he wanted to make sure these girls new the rules of the house!

My son gets home, sees the puppies and drops EVERYTHING! In a split second he was down on the floor with puppies crawling all over him. I told him to choose one and he picked the light red, naming her Riley. He said it's because she was red and he was thinking she needed an Irish name, Riley was the first irish sounding name he could come up with.

Half an hour later, my daughter comes home. She doesn't even LOOK in our direction and completely ignored my call outs. She was wearing headphones, typical teenager LOL! But once she rounded the kitchen and came to the living room the other way, she saw the liver tri pup sitting in the middle of the floor and squealed! She chose the name Delila for her pup since they were doing mythology in one of her classes.

So there we go, two extremely happy kids and puppies! We only had one problem. Hubby was at work and still thought we were only getting one pup. Uhhh..... heh! Thankfully, when he got home, all he did was grumble a bit. He fell for both the pups and it all ended on a great note. First day home and the girls learned "sit", "up" and "down". Smart girls! It had been an exhausting day and I was spent. My pain was ramping up but I was happy that everyone had worn themselves out. Even Big Brother Toboe! Mama is going to take advantage of the naptime and lay down too!