April 15, 2012
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You’re wrong, no you are, uhn-uuuh, YOU are!
I took care of several wonderful caring, hard working people who happened to unfortunately be sick. I’m sure they’re all getting better… but who cares about them, I want to vent about the chaos!
One of my wonderful nurses came up to me and stated she was a little frustrated. The reason she was frustrated was that she and a family member were arguing about the pain scale. You see, the nurse explained that, on a level of 0 to 10, 0 being no pain and 10 being the worst possible pain anyone can have, where was her pain level. The The patients family member explained that this scale simply was wrong.
Him: “Pain can get much worse than a 10/10,”
Her: Um, the scale only goes up to 10. 10 IS the worst possible pain. 10 is the max.
Him: Yeah, but pain can get worse than that, so the scale is wrong.
Her: What?
And it was at that time, both people were confused that the other one was not getting it.
I think maybe we need to change it from a 1-10 scale to something more abstract.
Me: Sir on a scale of purple to the letter M, where would rate your pain? Would you call it a light chocolate, or a glib button?
Him: Huh?
Me: Great, I’ll just write a 2, thanks.
I’ll give this guy at least a 7.
Comments (3)
for me:
1 = I’m fine, lets go now. (Cuz I don’t want to do this)
5 = In pain, but ever so cheery about it to staff. Suddenly become British.
7 = I am going to die, I am going to die, please just let me die…
10 = unable to speak, unable to lie on bed, instead just curled up on dr stool and scratching the sheets on the bed, (ulcer attack) when I hear my mom say “this is because you drink too much coke” yeah thanks for that newsflash, right this minute.
@storyslut - Hah, I can just hear the mother love echoing through her voice while you writhe in pain
hahaha… Okay, so I agree with the family member. Let me explain– before I gave birth to live human beings, my 10 was a broken toe I had in 8th grade. Then, I had a baby and that 10 (broken toe) was more like a 4.
So, 1998… 10 (birth) 4 (broken toe)
Then, in 2000 I vaginally birthed a occiput transverse baby and the pain scale was 10 (back labor) 5 (birth) 2 (broken toe)… and then about half an hour later it was 10 (vaginally delivering an occiput transverse baby who busted a muscle on his way out with a loud pop even the doctor heard)… and so on till my scale right now…
10 (healing from a pulled muscle in the butt region after birth, which until an x-ray showed otherwise I thought I broke my tailbone) 9 (ribcage tattoo) 8 (back labor) 4 (birth) 2 (broken toe). haha Okay, okay maybe a broken toe is higher but I can’t remember it was the 80s!