Is there good pain and bad pain?

The "good" pain could be from the healing process. The "bad" pain would mean things were getting worse.

After several weeks of agony (did I mention I have a low pain threshold?) and the third emergency trip to the specialist, I wrote up a list of possibilities to check on. I asked the doctor to sit down and help me decide on a plan.

My point being that I wanted to see if there was an end to the pain or if I should make a change in my approach.

What to do?

After deciding what the various symptoms might mean, I was given three options: 1) Cut the nerve to stop the pain now. 2) Keep on going and see if it heals. 3) If not, then cut the nerve.

On the one hand I didn't want to forget about the pain if it was important to know where it was localizing. I didn't want to cut out the wrong part! On the other hand, it seemed like all I was doing was concentrating on the pain.

I recalled years ago I had studied Vikings football players, like Jim Marshall, and their ability to go through pain. So I decided to continue to see if the pain was part of the healing process... or not.

Honoring the pain.

Then my son said over the phone, so you are "honoring" the pain.

And I liked that thought.

I wouldn't be fighting the pain but recognizing it as part of a healing process in my body.

Another reason I decided to go with the pain was that the body part in difficulty was healthy. It was alive. It was inflamed due to previous surgery and that was causing the pain. I had a 50/50 chance of having it heal again.

But the predominant consideration in my mind was that this was a live part of me. And I really want to keep all the living body parts I can!

It went on...

The process continued for another couple of weeks. The pain enveloped my every thought.

Finally I conferred with the specialist and he agreed...we had given it our best shot. In my case it meant root canal surgery. This was a good solution. And I've had them before. But this one turned out to be "unique and interesting." (I don't like to hear these words when dealing with medical issues about me!)

It was a rough ordeal - probably more for the surgeon!

But as I recuperate I can now concentrate on writing again. I really like that better!

I was getting awfully bored with myself.