Pain Management

There is pain and there is pain management. It can be anything proactive and creative. Something to get you past it all. I find myself in a “zone” listening to Soundscapes on the cable and just start in at whatever I’m working on and before I know it I’m done. With something. Might make a good Christmas present and might make a new toy for the dogs, but for that long period of time I didn’t need any medication.

Once upon a time I went to visit a friend’s Mom in State Road North Carolina. She showed me how to crochet. Then I got 4 wisdom teeth pulled and got dry socket for three months. I crocheted 350 skeins before I healed. No meds. It’s amazing! The best way I can explain it is that it hurts a lot then after about 15 minutes or so I can get myself into a daydreaming trance-like state and the pain is there but I’m not paying attention to it. “Redirect” is the technical term for it. Same thing with a kid who falls a scrapes a knee. WE automatically cradle the child and rub the head. Why? Nobody told us to. It’s not in any first-aid book. We dry their tears and wipe their face, then off they go before you can get the bandage on. No meds and no bandages! WOW!

 

I can choose to be miserable or I can do something about it. Doing something for others or just making myself a hat. Maybe even a ball for the dogs to tear apart. The real idea is that I figure that if my hands are doing something I won’t be discarded as an invalid. Worse yet, thought of as “invalid” perhaps even treated with a modicum of respect. There is an awful need to not be thought of as having “lost it” Oh, I expect that day will come. For now I will beat it back with a “stick” , a non-threatening one with a gentle hooked curve in the end the letters have a size or a number but I go with weather it grabs the string or not.

 

For those getting started just pick it up and put it down every 5 minutes until the “zone” kicks in. Then it’s all one stitch at a time from hole to hole. (Half’s, doubles and trebles combinations) Just think of what you want to make and start stitching. There’s TV and Music and good conversation. Then there is having something to show for it! Although with dementia I think I have a better time talking to myself than to others, besides, I get better answers that way!

   Sincerely Cecil

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