Pain

For my last post, I thought I would talk about something we recently covered in class, pain.  We talked a lot about the differences in chronic pain and acute pain.  We learned that acute pain is the pain that is associated with something like braking your arm or cutting a finger with a knife.  Acute pain is often easy to diagnose and often straightforward in treatment.  Chronic pain, on the other hand, is more complicated.  Chronic pain can have many causes and be difficult to treat.  Chronic pain can be a pain such as chronic headache or chronic back pain.

Chronic pain often occurs with a traumatic brain injury.  There can be many different types of pain in many different places, and most cases are difficult to find the source and just as difficult to treat.  In certain cases, such as a car accident, the pain can have nothing to do with the brain injury itself, but may be due to a crushed knee that had to be reconstructed after the accident.  Headache is a very common complaint, and can have numerous causes.  In some cases, it could be due to sinus issues that are a direct result of the trauma sustained to the head.

In many cases of head injury, the head is not the only part of the body affected.  Many other parts of the body can sustain trauma and need treatment.  There can be spinal cord injuries and broken bones, internal bleeding and torn ligaments.  So, in many occurrences of brain injury, patients go through both acute and chronic pain.  In addition to both chronic and acute pain, emotional pain can be just as devastating for a person who has received a brain injury.  The loss of functions that were previously taken for granted are a huge blow, such as being able to walk and think normally.  The loss of friends, the loss of a job, and the loss of independence can lead to a devastating depression.

Working with people who can experience pain everyday can be challenging and rewarding.  It's hard to see someone in pain and know that there is nothing one can do, but it's also rewarding to see them have a good time.  In closing, I just want to remind everyone that brain injuries are preventable.  Always wear a helmet when there's a risk of falling, such as on a bike, when snowboarding, or when playing contact sports, always buckle up and make sure everyone in your vehicle is with a proper seat belt, never drive distracted (texting, tweeting, and talking on the phone while driving are bad!!), and never ever drive intoxicated.  These are simple things that can make a world of difference to both you and the ones that care about you.

For more information on prevention of TBI, click here.