The Patient Speaks!

As I have previously written, one of our responsibilities as a chronic pain sufferer is to constantly research our condition making us better informed.  Sometimes the information we find is fascinating from a “Really?” or a “I didn’t know that!” perspective.  Trivia, if you will.

Wife and I were walking the wonderful streets of London, England recently and saw several adverts for an exhibit entitled: “PAIN: Passion, Compassion, Sensibility the Science Museum.

(http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/exhibitions/pain/index.asp)

The curator for this exhibition is the leading Spanish philosopher Javier Moscoso.  The whole thing was presented by the Wellcome Trust’s effort’s to enlighten us about “pain” (http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/en/pain/index.html). While all this may sound like a yawn, it was actually quite interesting.  Although the exhibit was nothing like I had expected, it was fascinating!  (Wife asked me “Well, just exactly what DID you expect?”).  There was quite a history of torture and the implements (impalements?) required to induce same.  Spooky!  It was the information about how human’s have dealt with it (pain) and some of the early efforts to control it that really caught my eye (OK.  There was a girl I used to date that could possibly have donated some of the stuff…).

Did you know that us headache sufferer’s have our very own Patron Saint?  Saint Livertin is the name.  There seems to be very little info about this saint and a quick search of google brings up some French and Italian language websites.  However, now all of we headache types with a degree of Irish in us can proclaim “Saints preserve us!” and really have our very own Saint to point at!

Then there was a German physiologist named Max von Frey (1852 – 1932) who invented the aesthesiometer.  At the end of the 19th century, von Frey claimed pain was the fourth sensation following cold, hot and pressure and he thought pain had its own sensory organ.  The aesthesiometer is supposed to measure your pain threshold (you first!).  No thanks….  I much prefer the old “It’s a #6 headache today, doc”.

Interesting stuff, this.  But how does it apply toward my quest for headache relief?  It doesn’t, I suppose.  But I really, REALLY am grateful that if I have to endure this pain, at least it’s in this century with all the advancements science has to offer.  You’ve got to have a hole in your head if you think the trepanning of old was the way to go (every pun intended)….