Old Pharts always
compare illnesses and diseases
There is a big difference here, Crom. Yes, all us old pharts do indeed compare our owies. Often, our pains are all we really have in common. But note that I used the word
compete for whose pain is worse.
COMPARE:
Person X: I have advanced degenerative disc disease.
Person Y: I have that too. I take boogaloo drops. What medicine do you take for it?
COMPETE:
Person X: And every disc is blown out on the right side, tilting my spine to the left, which in turn tilts the entire rib cage, which often causes pain at the sternum that can be mistaken for a heart attack.
Person Y: My spine isn't tilted, but most of my discs are herniated. But I also have a hundred or so bone spurs that are pinching my nerves.
Person X comes back with: The neurosurgeon says I have several hundred bones spurs, but not just in my spine but every joint in my body. And I also have...
This is two people, each trying to prove their pain is worse than the other guy's pain, and that is just stupid because how we each respond to pain is the bigger deal than how much of the body might be broken. For example, if Person X got his pains 40 years ago and Person Y got his pains 2 years ago, likely Person Y hurts more than person X even though the physical damage might be exactly the same. Why? One guy has had lots of years to adapt and maybe even block some of the nerve response and the other guy hasn't learned how to do that yet. This is why I said I will not compete with anyone about whose pain is worse... it is just too subjective.