(no subject)

[salinea]

Semagic is acting weird. Not only is it giving me birthday warnings for people who are no longuer on my flist, but now it's giving them for people who were never on it. As far as I can see, the only thing I have in common with a certian odrade is that he or she's on graymm's flist. O_o

Anyway, a belated happy birthday to atpolittlebit ♥


So my scar-thing on the right from the surgery sort of infected itself, swelled and hurts a little bit like hell. Seen the doctor and he gave me antibiotics and stuff to deal with it so no worry, and i'll spare you the messy details. Anti-pain pills are love, it's a fact that should be said more often.

This gets me thinking, we seldom see in fics or books a good acurate description of physical pain and what it does to the mind. The full scale of the "FUCK IT HURTS MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP" part. As if pain couldn't very well break people. Doesn't even need to be big, just lengthy. Characters tend to endure torture and fear with little more than gritting their teeth and then rushing to the comfort part. Funny compared to all the fics exploring the intricacies of emotionnal anguish.
There are exceptions. More often than not I think they're fics that deal with a slow recovery, or the reality of being crippled.
I guess that's the worst part of pain, the way it robs you of the control of your body. When it's continuous and immobilizing and fucking impossible to ignore. Otherwise, pain is just pain, information, and it's not like the human body hasn't been made to endure a great deal of it. It's also something that years after years people learn to live with. A terrible fact of its own.

Sorry, I'll stop the gloomy topic now.

Comments

Sorry

[maeve-rigan.livejournal.com]

Sorry you've been hurting.

Agree that pain is hard to convey in fiction. Not that you necessarily *want* to read/view this kind of thing just now, but two fictional examples of extended consideration of pain:
the play/film *Wit*, by Margaret Edson (starring Emma Thompson); and the historical novels of Dorothy Dunnett, in which the hero is tortured in various ways, mentally, physically. Migraine headaches, opium withdrawal, literal torture, recovery from accidental burns. These episodes aren't really the main attractions of the books, though; they're worth reading for all kinds of reasons.

[quitty.livejournal.com]

I guess that's the worst part of pain, the way it robs you of the control of your body. When it's continuous and immobilizing and fucking impossible to ignore. Otherwise, pain is just pain, information, and it's not like the human body hasn't been made to endure a great deal of it. It's also something that years after years people learn to live with. A terrible fact of its own. Not a gloomy topic at all, a wonderful insight actually. Because it's truth.

[habibti.livejournal.com]

They just never tell you that no matter how hard you try to keep your stitches clean in that area, they have a really high likelihood of getting infected.

Ah, the pain. It's not a friend. But the drugs are. I remember after one surgery having to give myself a stern talk. At first, the Percoset was just taking away the pain, then, as the pain diminished, the percoset made me feel soooo good. I made myself throw them out because I know myself - all too easy to give in to the love.

Pain is a weird thing. I just visited a friend at the hospital having her third child. The first thing she said to me was that you forget how painful labour pains can be. I looked at her strangely - she's had 2 other kids in the last five years. But the pain is forgotten. I try to recall what my post-surgical pain is like - I remember one surgery where I had to wait almost an hour to have my morphine drip increased because the pain on a scale of 1 to 10 had jumped up to 11. I can't remember that pain now. I guess that's a good thing.

[busaikko]

Hey, love, I've come over to play in your LJ, and I just had to send you some (hopefully too late!) love and hugs. Sorry to hear that you're in pain--or, hopefully, were in pain. Hope all is well now. Good drugs are good; no pain is better! It is true that you can get used to it--but no one wants to do that! And it is true that you forget what it felt like afterwards--otherwise no one would have more than one child! But that's little comfort when you're in pain. * more hugs * take care....

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

thank you, you're very sweet ^^

I'm much better now, though it's still a tiny little bit painful, but I think I'll blame this one of my periods.

Lol totally agreeing with you about children, not that I would know from experience but pain does seem like something that slips easily from the mind for survival reasons.

[busaikko]

I'm glad to hear you're feeling better! I've missed seeing you around (although that might have been for any RL reason: romantic vacation for two on the beach, ski holiday, rollerblade tournament, accepting the Nobel peace Prize, you know). Take care, ne! Oh, and I finally bought a French dictionary, so I'm trying to translate your rap lyrics.... The last French song I heard was Jeanne Mas back in high school... almost 20 years ago....

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Not even that ^^

Boy, I need to catch up with reading all those fics you posted meanwhile O_O

Thank you, take care as well ^^

wow, Jeanne Mas... that's... old. I'll try to post a few french song on my lj if i manage to make yousendit work. See of you like anything ^_^

[busaikko]

wow, Jeanne Mas... that's... old.
(( kicks etrangere in the ankle ))

Er. Thanks? We all thought Jeanne Mas was brilliant--you should have seen the films we used for French study--everyone wore minidresses and had beehive hair!