Last week I wanted to check something on a medical journal website, and ended up on another site instead. But it ended up being a good thing, after all.
The webpage I landed on, by mistake, lists different types of conditions or diseases that can cause musculoskeletal pain; pain felt in the bones, joints, ligaments, muscles, nerves, or tendons.
This website also included short descriptions of the types of pain for each disease or condition. So, of course, I checked to see if my rare chronic pain disease was listed – and it was!
This website is meant for doctors, so it’s written in medical jargon; the text is mostly medical terms. For example, here’s what it says for my disease; Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS):
Prolonged pain, disproportionate to the initiating event, most frequently a minor trauma and most commonly affecting the distal aspect of an extremity.
Pain is often described as spontaneous, burning, lancinating, sharp, shooting, or electric. Characteristically develops dull, boring, and aching qualities with chronicity.”(1)
Two words jumped out at me in that paragraph, as an example of how someone could misunderstand what’s written in medical terms. The phrase: “dull, boring”.
In this context the word “boring” doesn’t mean that CRPS is boring for physicians to treat, nor that the patients are dull!
So here’s my translation, into regular English, of the notes about CRPS pain on this website:
Pain that lasts a long time, and is much stronger than what you’d expect for that injury (or other cause).
It usually starts with a minor injury (or other cause).
CRPS often affects the fingers or toes. Many patients say the pain starts suddenly.
It can be a burning, stabbing, sharp, or shooting pain, like electric shocks.
If CRPS gets to the long-term – chronic pain – stage, it can change to more stable, drilling-type, aching pain over time.
This a good reminder of how important it is to ask your doctor about any terms that don’t make sense to you. If a doctor, nurse, or pharmacist gives you – or a loved one – something to read, and there’s a word or phrase that you don’t understand, ask about it!
If it’s about a medication, your pharmacist might also be able to help. It’s better to be sure that you understand a medical word, instead of guessing! It’s your health, or the health of your loved one, after all.
Reference
(1) BMJ Publishing Group, Ed. Overview of musculoskeletal pain. BMJ Best Practice. Revision ePub: Nov 2017. Web:
https://bestpractice.bmj.com/topics/en-us/834