Hi, Vivster!
I'm SO sorry to hear about your ordeals right now!
Pain..........ok..........I'm intimately aware of what you are referring to. I'm in constant pain, but you'd never know. And half the time, neither do I. The meds can only take care of so much of it, huh? A woman who I met at my son's basketball game talked to me about pain the other night. She, also, is in constant pain, but somehow seems to just "ignore" it and carry on.
Anyway, the only thing I can say is it might be something like "biofeedback" or something. I ran across a good website that basically explains what biofeedback is and how it is used clinically.
http://www.psychotherapy.com/bio.html
Anyway, what I did was to sort of train myself to gradually adjust to certain levels of pain. There is now a pain threshold for me, I've noticed. But it is fairly high. Any pain I feel under that threshold, I simply "ignore". If the average pain-free person were to experience the pain I experience daily and don't believe is bad at all now, they would probably take to their bed.
Read up on biofeedback techniques. Ask the doctors if they can help you with learning it and using it. You never know, it might help enormously.
The first thing I'd personally recommend is do NOT concentrate on it. Do your best to train yourself to think of other things or become focused on something else.........an activity you enjoy, reading (if you get engrossed while reading), things like that. When you find yourself "thinking" about the pain, force yourself to concentrate on something else. I know it sounds pretty stupid, but believe me, it helps.
Keep us posted on your condition!!
Deb
