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What is normal for you?

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    What is normal for you?

    I have a new infusion center because the last place was the worst about their billing, so I fired them. Anyway, I started this week getting my infusions at a new office. I had to go through the questionaire etc...So here is my question: I was asked if I was having more pain than normal or if my pain was at a normal level. What is normal? I want to have my old normal back! Now, my normal is starting a day with pain in my arms, hands, legs then I end my day with sharp pain in my back along with pain in my feet and legs. So, do I have more pain or less pain than normal? I don't even know what normal is!
    All sunsets are beautiful, but the most amazing sunsets have a few clouds.

    #2
    Well, there's old normal and there's new normal. But try not to get hung up on the word normal.

    In this case of the question from the infusion center, normal means "usual" for you. Are you having more pain than you usually do the other six days of most weeks or the other three weeks of most months? Or is your pain at a level it usually is on average?

    And normal in this case doesn't mean "compared to everybody else." It means compared to how you feel most of the time on other days or during other weeks. And it means compared to recently, within the last few weeks or months or since you started taking Tysabri or whatever medication you're going to the infusion center for. Usual doesn't mean compared to five years ago.

    So if most days per week for the last several weeks your usual days (more often than not) start with pain in your arms, hands, legs then end with sharp pain in my back along with pain in your feet and legs, that's what you should compare to, and you know what that is. The question is asking if you're having more severe pain than you do most of the other time or in more places or for longer duration. if not -- meaning your pain is about the same amount of terrible it is most other days -- then the answer is no, you're not having more pain than normal (usual).

    Or to quantify it...

    If the amount of pain you feel everyday is, say, 5 on a scale of 10, and that day your pain is 5 or maybe 6 on a scale of 10, then the answer would be no, you're not having more pain than usual.

    If the amount of pain you feel everyday is 5 on a scale of 10, but in the last two or three days your pain is 8 or 9 on a scale of 10, then the answer would be yes, you are having more pain than usual.

    If the amount of pain you feel everyday is 9 on a scale of 10, but one day a week for the last six months your pain is 10 on a scale of 10, and today your pain is 10 on a scale of 10, the answer would be no, you're not having more pain than usual, because having one day a week when your pain is a 10 out of 10 is part of a pattern.

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      #3
      I had to smile when I saw this post . Not about the questions we have to answer for the medical establishment (but sometimes that is necessary) but about your question.

      My DH has his own medical issues (NOT MS) and out of concern for each other most days we will ask how the other is feeling. After a period of time spent listing all of my 'complaints' every day I just started telling him "normal" when he asks how I am feeling today (as long as there have been no changes in how I am feeling). Now he does the same .

      But I believe that jreagan70 answered the question you asked best.

      Wishing you better 'normal's'

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        #4
        Thank you

        Thanks both of you.
        jreagan70 I have heard the explaination you gave before, but I had forgotten it.
        All sunsets are beautiful, but the most amazing sunsets have a few clouds.

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