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Describing pain

Simmerella
3 months ago

Does anyone else struggle explaining how they feel with pain? I saw my GP this morning cause I've been having pains and when she asked what sort of pain it was I couldn't answer her because I don't know. Pain is pain to me. It just hurts, I couldn't elaborate on that anymore. And then she asked me what scale my pain was on from 1-10. I couldn't answer that either, it just hurt I didn't know how to explain it. 

I'm pretty sure she rolled her eyes at me though can't be 100% sure of it but I'm pretty sure I saw that. She definitely gave me a look though like I was wasting her time. 

I left feeling really awkward and lonely because no one around me gets what this is actually like. 

It reminded me of when I was little and had tummy pain and my mum asked me what type of pain it was then too and again I didn't know I just said it hurt. 

I'm wondering if this is autism related?

Parents
  • 3 months ago

    Last year I had a bad stomach, for a few days I didn't eat and  ended up in bed, then my wife called an ambulance. I felt it was overkill but couldn't stop her. They said I should go to hospital, I did, a few days in there unable to eat or drink ,  being asked "how much does it hurt?" And saying "5 out of 10 maybe" , they did a CT and found my appendix was in bits and I had a severe infection. Operation went ok, but took ages and they were all confused at how they missed "text book symptoms " of acute appendicitis.

    Reading afterwards it's apparently common in autistic patients to miss appendicitis because we don't explain It well.It hurt like absolute hell but I had no idea how to explain it, so I thought if I go with 5 then there's room for more if it gets worse.

    After a long life of knowing I had some serious issues, I was diagnosed autistic this year, I wonder if they'd have been different in diagnosis if they'd known then....

Reply
  • 3 months ago

    Last year I had a bad stomach, for a few days I didn't eat and  ended up in bed, then my wife called an ambulance. I felt it was overkill but couldn't stop her. They said I should go to hospital, I did, a few days in there unable to eat or drink ,  being asked "how much does it hurt?" And saying "5 out of 10 maybe" , they did a CT and found my appendix was in bits and I had a severe infection. Operation went ok, but took ages and they were all confused at how they missed "text book symptoms " of acute appendicitis.

    Reading afterwards it's apparently common in autistic patients to miss appendicitis because we don't explain It well.It hurt like absolute hell but I had no idea how to explain it, so I thought if I go with 5 then there's room for more if it gets worse.

    After a long life of knowing I had some serious issues, I was diagnosed autistic this year, I wonder if they'd have been different in diagnosis if they'd known then....

Children
  • 3 months ago in reply to Autisician

    Aw you poor poor thing. I'm so sorry you had to go through all of that, not just the pain but having to go in an ambulance, stay in hospital and have surgery. That must have been a hell of an ordeal for you to endure! 

    I'm not surprised though now I know it's an autism thing. I can only imagine so many of us get misdiagnosed because we can't explain exactly how we're feeling. In some cases I imagine it can have severe consequences... as with you... that could have ended really badly. I'm glad you got through it all okay though!