"Cheryl" wrote in message
...
On 2011-09-02 5:08 PM, Christina Websell wrote:
The leaflet that came with my appointment letter said "you might
experience
some discomfort" so I was confident-ish when I got to the hospital that
it
would not be too bad.

It wasn't. At first. The doc attached electrical thingies to my good
arm
and then to my bad one and put rubber rings on my fingers. I could feel
the
electric current but it was OK... I said this is not too bad, better than
I
thought.
Until he moved up my arm gradually. OMG. It got worse and worse until
he
got up to the swollen part on my shoulder and when the current went
through
that it brought tears to my eyes it was such agony.
After that I had to have needles put into every muscle to get a reading
from
a machine, even in my hand. They say it will not hurt you once the
needle
is put in. I can assure you it does. Mega.
Unfortunately the doctor that did this had a severe speech impediment so
I
only got the drift of what he was telling me, which was my nerves are not
severed, damaged quite badly but they are showing slight signs of
regeneration.
This is good, and he says 2 and half years will tell me how it will be.
Nerves can recover but there is a limited time for that, apparently, my
consultant says 18 months and you're shot.
It's the damaged nerves that make me unable to use my arm in a useful
way.
I want to believe the 2-1/2 years is true and it can take that long and I
will be able to use my arm again within that time.
18 months does not seem realistic atm
Tweed

I hope you continue to have improvement. It's encouraging that the doctor
thinks you will.

In my rather limited experience, if medical personnel sai "you might
experience some discomfort" they really mean "It's going to hurt, probably
a lot".

I had a test years ago which they claimed would cause very minor
discomfort, nothing more that a very mild cramping. I damn near went
through the ceiling.

They helpfully explained that of course there was more 'discomfort' if
they found what the doctor had suspected.

--
Cheryl

Right. Doctors avoid the word "pain". I don't think most of them realize
that calling severe pain "discomfort" is demeaning, as well as misleading.
They don't want to get you scared, but I'd feel better if they'd just say,
"This may hurt quite a bit, but it will accomplish (whatever), and I'll make
it as quick as I can."

Joy