Two Sides of Pain

In preparation for the 2005 JV basketball season, I played hoops in a local rec league — PPC, for you ATLiens out there.

I stood about 5’6” … unaware that a ~one-foot growth spurt, plus the mornings when I felt like a billy club had been taken to my legs, was headed my way. Not the point of the story though!

During a game that fall, I heard a slight pop in my right hip as I jumped for a rebound. Not a big deal, I thought — after sitting out the rest of the game, I resumed my normal activities a few weeks later.

In the coming years, though, the hip ache lingered. And sure, I visited some chiropractors and doctors. But generally, I ignored it because hey, my injury never prevented me from doing anything that I wanted … and the pain was minimal … so just live with it, right?

Brutal rationale.

Low-grade pain is insidious: often minor enough to stop you in your tracks and force a search for a solution, but strong enough to sour a mood and waste tons of brainpower.

And unfortunately, I waited until the pain worsened to be persistent in finding a fix (and fingers crossed, the help from these kings will continue to do wonders).

I’d argue that if you experience any persistent pain, even if it barely registers, then finding a cure should be prioritized more than (or at least as much as) any other personal goal.

That seems obvious, and maybe I’m a part of a tiny minority of knuckleheads who haven’t taken this to heart.

I bet that’s not the case, though … because we all have competing priorities, the health system is confusing and expensive, and it’s easy to get discouraged when a potential solution doesn’t pan out.

But there’s just no way to be your best self while in pain, and as my sis and pops mentioned a while ago (and I agree), you’ll never regret spending money on improving health.

So, be as dogged finding a health fix as you would anything else hard and important:

• Take the dead-ends as lessons learned;

• Bet that most solutions will be a piece of the puzzle, instead of an absolute cure; and

• Assume that well-intentioned people (i.e. doctors), who have other things on their mind, will only be able to help if you’re hyper clear about what you need and share the details that they don’t prod for.

A second angle to pain:

Although I didn’t expect to be consistently grateful for this change in hip health, I am surprised how rarely I think about it.

Essentially, never!

Even though the pain lasted, in some fashion, for over 15 years, I’ve forgotten its insidious nature.

So what does that say about the type of pain that’s good for us? That leads to growth?

We’re almost guaranteed to forget about it as soon as it passes.

If we can become friendly with that pain, reminding ourselves that it can’t trick us into thinking that it’ll stick around forever if we just get granular with our work and goals, then victory will be ours.