One big problem I think is that, good or bad and I think bad because a majority of people, DONT KNOW WHAT PAIN REALLY IS, my mum once said to me, “ what is pain and what does it feel like?” I was sunken, lol, how do you describe pain to someone who has never felt pain, apart from thumping someone on the nose and say, now that’s pain, How would you describe you pains to somebody doesn’t know what pain is?.
Philip
I would say its jolly unpleasant, very distracting, effects how you can act and react and much worse than stubbing your toe. Or something similar. Im sure others on here will have a good way of explaining it.
I would describe it as a thud thud thud like someone banging something off the ground and when you've got it everything annoys you, I find when I've got it and we're watching the Grandkids that I've got too evacuate to the room for piece and quiet, somewhere to meditate although I love ❤️ them to bits
Hiya, I always say that my knees and other joints are "screeching" at me.
My gradnma used to say she had toothache in her knees. Everyone has had toothache at least once.
An interesting question. I would likely describe a migraine. It is like your heart is pounding in your teeth. You cannot move your head without waves of nausea. You even try to slow your breathing as any motion or light can trigger violent vomiting. The worst aspect is knowing you will not die and must suffer through it. If unfortunate enough to start vomiting then your body goes into sweats, shakes and you will do just about anything to make it stop.
After one of those everything else seems minor lol 😂 after years of migraines I am trained to cope with RD. My dentists are completely beside themselves because I had an abscess the size of a quarter and did not react to it. It all just blends in. I also believe that I have had so many years of chronic pain that I can manage a great deal more than most lol . Not like we have a choice about it.
I would say imagine having a tooth abcess or unset broken leg for two years with no treatment.
It’s not easy to explain pain to someone who has not had any pain whatsoever,.
I can't imagine that a person has got through life without experiencing any pain at all. That would be remarkable indeed!
I have been asked this very question about RA and replied that I would rather go to the dentist once a week than have RA. And, judging by what I read on here, my RA is like having a paper cut compared with many others that post on here.
I went to a tribunaral once in Liverpool fighting for my benefits, the man in the middle chairman of the panel, he never spoke to me once but I had a solicitor on my side lol and and sadly they knew each other and he asked her, please explain what is pain and how does it feel. Total blank, I sujested punch the bstard on his nose and then ask him the same Question.
Unbelievable. Any way she didn’t punch his nose. Lol, it was years after that I actually got what I needed, someone who believed my pain.
Philip
good on you bash for me as well i give the look of death it usually a good way they stop SAYING I UNDERSTAND
I’d say “imagine every joint, disc, finger and toe has been smashed by a hammer and shocked by a live wire. Then try to walk and bend and reach to pick things up and imagine all your muscles are elastic bands that snap as you try.” Oh dear, I haven’t even gotten to hips and legs and feet!
It’s like the the worst heartache you have ever felt. If you have lost a loved one or a boyfriend/girlfriend etc... We have all felt heart ache that wants to keep you in bed. Now move that to your bones, joints, spine etc...and tell them it never leaves just is more and less intense daily but the low end is like dealing with cold symptoms yet going to work. Ask your Mum if you could poke her with a needle at random times during the day at the most inconvenient times and ask her at the end of the day if she is exhausted. Better yet let her fall asleep then start banging pots and pans and then let her fall asleep again continue this cycle until her alarm goes off.
Now that am not saying do any of these but they may help put into perspective what we go through.
I read on here once someone describe it as overnight, feeling like your hands have been wrapped in plastic bags and someone has taken a hammer and smashed every bone in your hands to pieces and the only thing keeping them together is the plastic bag ( except the plastic bag in reality is your skin)
There are different types of pain, there is acute and chronic. Which can be described as grinding, biting, jarring, crunching sawing, numbing, the list is endless.
I call my RA bone searing. Its almost exquisite in its intensity!
The results of uncontrolled inflammation give a different sort of uncomfortable immobility and the stifness of course is just awful but for example I flared in my left foot and base of my skull two days ago and its an all consuming throbbing beat of agony working in synchronisation at opposite ends of the body. Remaining completely untouched by analgesia!
Since Ive now spent the last two days with a rancid vomiting and diarrhoea bug I realise my poor immune system was zooming into overdrive and making me flare as I was about to come down with the lurgy!
Just grim.
Now my poor husband has been throwing up all night.
Its bucket and towel central at our house today!
A really different type of pain!
In bonus news as fast as the sickness bug came on the flare lessened!
Wishing a pain free day for all.
Mx
Would really be interesting to know more about pain in forum members. Pain degree and quality seem to vary a lot. Do you as an example have constant pain? If not when do you have pain? Are you taking daily pain medication on top of RA meds? Do your RA meds keep pain away?
Brilliant idea Simba1992, a friends daughter has been diagnosed with the child version of this and she is only 8 years old.
I can only describe my pain to people as 'imagine someone has stamped on your toes and fingers repeatedly where they are so swollen and throbbing you can barely think straight. Now imagine you have broken your arms between the shoulder and elbow and everytime you move your arms the bones break apart'
People really don't get the pain RA sufferers have. on a flare, especially at the moment with no meds, I can barely pick up a 4pint milk carton without excrutiating pain in my wrists.
I still work full time and despite how bad the pain is have not had a day off sick in 2years, beat me with a stick maybe but RA is something I have to deal with and turning each day is my way of sticking my fingers up at it, I do however get really annoyed when people call in sick for 'tummy ache'...I know I should have more compassion but geez!
Hello Ihavedementia!
Where do I start, because mind is swirling with almost typed insults here 😡. Did Emily Pankhurst throw herself under the king’s horse for nothing?!
I know the pains of RA. My wrists have felt like someone cut them open then put shards of glass inside. I’ve had to go to bed on more than one occasion in clothes because getting undressed was too painful and my husband was away. I’ve known pain that’s made me feel too sick to eat. I remember the queasy nails-down-a-blackboard “thunk” of my Achilles tendon snapping and the pain of having my wrist bone mashed up and reformed with a piece of steel to make a stiffener (ok I was unconscious for that but the pain afterwards was horrible.
BUT. The greatest pain of all was the birth of my children, especially the first which was an induction at far too fast a speed. I saw myself being cut with a pair of scissors to make room for the head to emerge. I think I screamed solidly for 5 hours. I can liken it to attempting to pass a melon out of your backside. I think if a porter had announced he was sure (despite no training) he could eject the baby I’d have let him try 😂.
OK rant over. Ihavedementia, your mother knows all about pain. She had you. 😊😊😊😊
Well what can I say about a melon being shoved up ya bum, it’s a good job I don’t like them, hehehe, it looks as if you’ve been in all the wars lol but I think you’ve have had more than you fare share of the ills.
Philip
Lol. That’s more like childbirth!
Mum said that when I was born, I almost killed her, I was born with a beard lol
Very good lmao
Pain Relief...What do you take?
What words would you use to describe your pain? 
What do pain management units do?
What do you do about pain? 
