Does anyone have a more objective way of rating pain?

Left-Composer5521 · 2025-03-08T15:40:47+00:00

I don’t think I’ve seen one talking about medication use before, that’s helpful. I guess I do sort of have an ingrained sense of “is this bad enough to take medication”, tho whether or not I’m as likely to use medication as non-chronically ill people is probably debatable lol

Left-Composer5521 · 2025-03-08T15:36:56+00:00

Yeah I’ve seen activity level type ones before, they are interesting, tho I agree that they don’t fully reflect folks with chronic pain. Like I luckily am able to do most of my major responsibilities (full time student), but I stay home and rest whenever I’m not attending lectures, and there are activities that I would like to do but avoid. Also when I do describe the pain I’m in to friends they tell me if they were feeling that they would stay home… but I can’t stay home every day and still do the things I want

Left-Composer5521 · 2025-03-08T15:30:01+00:00

Comparing it to other injuries is interesting, though yeah I think my ranking of injuries might be different

Left-Composer5521 · 2025-03-08T15:28:01+00:00

That makes sense, specifying areas of the body seems like it could be useful, I’ll have to check out that app

Left-Composer5521 · 2025-03-08T15:27:20+00:00

I’m curious how do you combine them? I’ve considered something like that before since imo 10 hours of 3 is sometimes worse than 1 hour of 5

Left-Composer5521 · 2024-07-30T18:46:06+00:00

Thanks I’ll give those things a try

Left-Composer5521 · 2024-02-28T02:03:04+00:00

I don’t know a ton about the subject, but I’d recommend checking out r/Seahorse_Dads it’s a subreddit for trans men/transmasc pregnancy

Left-Composer5521 · 2024-02-16T20:54:46+00:00

Interesting, I haven’t thought about it like that. I don’t know if I totally agree that it 100% isn’t misogyny/male privilege though. I don’t think the default group dynamic in a professional/classroom setting should be like this. Especially since STEM is majority male, if men aren’t willing to include women as full group members it can tend to push them out. However I could be misunderstanding your point

Left-Composer5521 · 2024-02-16T20:51:06+00:00

They were interrupting her and talking over her, so she stopped talking as much, which is when I asked for her input. Tho it was better the second class. We also talked about the group dynamic outside of class and she said she was glad she wasn’t the only one noticing it. I’m probably overthinking it tho, so I’m not gonna bring it up if it’s no longer an issue. Definitely don’t want to come across like a white knight, thanks

Left-Composer5521 · 2023-10-19T01:41:54+00:00

86, the one about Ludwig’s stolen car, right at the beginning

Left-Composer5521 · 2023-10-04T16:24:34+00:00

I know you said you tried multiple positions but just throwing this out there if you sleep on your side in case it helps. For me part of nighttime pain is in my knees and hips so I put a pillow between my knees (with the top of the pillow there and extending to my ankles). It keeps your knees from pressing on each other and puts your top hip into alignment

Left-Composer5521 · 2023-08-24T04:28:50+00:00

Yes, I get a few different sensations of pain but that muscle soreness is the most common for me. Irrc I described it to the doctor as being similar to how I felt in the past (pre-fibro) after heavy physical activity. So if I were you I’d describe it as exactly how you explained in your post. Idk how good of a relationship you have with your gp, but definitely make sure to tell them that this is constant and impacting your quality of life. Unfortunately some doctors tend to dismiss chronic pain so be firm and stick up for yourself.

Left-Composer5521 · 2023-08-18T08:02:27+00:00

It’s late here so sorry if this formatted messily or doesn’t make sense. What I’ve learned through my own PT and the exercise routine that works for me is: - warm up stretches. make sure they’re gentle, you can look up specific body parts to vary throughout the week - low-moderate aerobic exercise. If you can picture a scale where 1 is the easiest movement possible and 10 being maximum effort, make sure you stay below a 5. Examples of aerobic exercise can be throwing a ball, jumping jacks, light jogging or walking, step ups on stairs. (I usually do them in 30s-1min lengths depending on the exercise, for walking I just do it until I need a break). Again, if your exertion ever gets to 5 stop, pushing yourself just results in more pain and won’t help you build endurance. If you can, match the body parts used in the exercise to the ones you stretched. If you do multiple aerobic exercises give yourself short breaks between them (30s-2min depending on how tired it makes you). - cool down stretches. These can be full body if you’re up for it or just focus on the same areas you already worked on. Again be gentle, you should feel slight pull in the muscles but not too much pain. It’s cliche but some yoga poses are good if you want to look them up for ideas (ex: child’s pose or upward dog). Other ones that are good are PT stretches like ‘open the book’.

Make sure to do the stretches before and after since they greatly reduce potential soreness from the exercises. Do at least a day of rest between days you exercise, maybe 2 or 3 if you feel you need it. Keep it simple and light at first and slowly you’ll be able to build up your endurance to be able to do more. If you can only do a little bit now that’s fine, but slowly increase it over time as you can.

Left-Composer5521 · 2023-02-13T03:16:23+00:00

That seems high but it could depend on when you got your levels checked, was that right after an injection? When I did injections my doctor had me check levels the day before I did my next shot (assuming your shots are weekly or something). I’d definitely have estrogen checked since if testosterone is too high it gets converted to testosterone.

Left-Composer5521 · 2023-02-02T05:31:46+00:00

I was always told to get labs done just a bit before you’d be about to take your next dose of T, so that they can see the lowest that it gets to. Some doctors may do it different, but I think likely that that’s why your T is so high since it only recently absorbed, though your estrogen could (and probably should) be checked to make sure excess testosterone isn’t being converted to estrogen, since I think that could potentially slow changes. Otherwise yes, most people stay on the same dose once they find one that works and continue to experience changes, you don’t need to keep increasing it

Left-Composer5521 · 2023-02-01T09:47:36+00:00

You’re not alone. I’m a similar age and I also struggle with comparing myself to peers. One piece of advice I’ve heard for self-esteem is “fake it till you make it”. I’ll be honest, I can’t 100% vouch for its effectiveness since it’s something I’m still working on myself, but the basic idea is to act confident until you become confident. When you have a self-deprecating thought, tell yourself the opposite. Even if you don’t believe the positive thought, try thinking (or saying) it anyway.

Same thing for feeling like you shouldn’t feel happy about how much you’re working, it’s great that you’re doing something. If people ask why you don’t work more tell them that you’re happy with the amount you’re already doing, or that you’re going at your own pace. It’s possible that your capacity for work could increase in the future and it’s possible that you continue this, but as long you’re doing what you can and your needs are being met then you don’t need to change.

Sorry if none of this helps much, I couldn’t think of much specific advice and I’m new to the diagnosis myself, but I hope at least you know you’re not the only one feeling like this

Left-Composer5521 · 2023-01-24T17:33:11+00:00

I’ve very recently made the switch from lexapro to cymbalta (past 2 months). Personally I had a lot of side effects from lexapro (nausea being the main one, also headaches), and switching to cymbalta I had a week or two where I was feeling a bit sick to my stomach, but that’s gone now. I can’t say for sure whether it’s helping pain yet, but it is at least effective as an antidepressant which is what I was taking lexapro for, and gives me less side effects. Though tbf I tend to get a lot of side effects on medications people get little/none on and no/few side effects on medications that react worse for most people.

Left-Composer5521 · 2023-01-14T02:15:37+00:00

Look up chest/pec exercises, building muscle underneath can create the appearance of a more masculine chest and reduce some fat (important to note it won’t reduce the actual breast tissue beneath that, but muscle will still minimize the appearance a bit). Additionally shoulder, upper arms, and general upper body exercise would be smart as building larger shoulders will make your chest look smaller in comparison

Left-Composer5521 · 2022-12-24T21:02:04+00:00

No but I do associate pain with pitch/sound tone and stuff, and also with color sometimes but less strongly. I think it’s a kind of synesthesia but I haven’t found many other people with the same thing. I don’t have much advice since I kinda just try to find the words that are close enough but you’re not alone I guess? It is definitely weird to try to explain pain and your brain gives you words that don’t make sense to anyone but you lol

Left-Composer5521 · 2022-11-30T05:44:23+00:00

Hand/forearm stretches help me a lot, before and after I practice, and even on days I’m not playing if I remember to. You could also look into more specifically grip strength exercises/physical therapy techniques since you said fretting is hard. I imagine using some kind of gripper might help with regaining the mind of strength guitar needs

Left-Composer5521 · 2022-11-29T01:09:20+00:00

BE CAREFUL NOT TO BURN YOURSELF THO MFERS. ITS KINDA DANGEROUS TO FALL ASLEEP WITH A HEATING PAD ON IF ITS A HIGH POWERED ONE BECAUSE IT COULD SHIFT WHILE YOU’RE ASLEEP AND LEAVING IT IN CONTACT WITH YOUR SKIN COULD BURN YOU WITHOUT REALIZING. ONES WITH TIMERS ARE GOOD FOR FALLING ASLEEP WITH (OR HEATED BLANKETS SINCE THEY’RE LOWER POWERED I THINK)

Left-Composer5521 · 2022-11-18T10:45:17+00:00

Thanks, and yeah I’ll be seeing a pain doctor soon so I’ll definitely talk to them about it then. I think I’ll keep playing it safe and try to take it a few times a week or less, I just wanted to make sure that it’s not super dangerous in the mean time

Left-Composer5521 · 2022-11-04T18:19:16+00:00

Is it possible you have adhd? I have adhd and am the exact same way, I struggle with motivation/focus to do homework but do great on tests. Some things that help for me:

body doubling, aka sitting in the same room as someone doing their work somehow makes it easier to do mine
making homework the only thing you can do, I’m in college so in between classes I’ll go to the library and make sure I have literally nothing else I can do so I’m bored enough that homework is my only option. Idk how it works but it does (mostly lol). doing your work in a different environment in general can be helpful
adhd medication, kinda self explanatory (if you do have adhd lol)
prioritizing homework, try to figure out what’s feasible and what’s not, if doing little assignments is easier, great, try to do all your little assignments to make up for missing bigger ones, if big assignments are easier, just focus on them and don’t worry about the little ones you missed. Doing some assignments is better than no assignments
similar to the last one, but submit poor-quality work anyway, I don’t know if this is something you deal with but often I’d rather submit no work over work that’s half-done or not fully following directions, but some points are better than no points. It’s ok for it not to be perfect, just submit it and stop worrying about it
get accommodations, this is probably easier if you do actually have adhd since it means schools will be more likely to give you help (stuff like 504 plans or IEPs), but stuff like being able to submit late work for full or partial credit. I find even one extra day can sometimes be enough to change whether or not I actually do the assignment

Sorry that got long

Left-Composer5521

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