Funded by Dan’s Fund for Burns
http://www.adultburnsupportuk.org
info@adultburnsupportuk.org
ABSUK Forum
Welcome to the Adult Burn Support UK (ABSUK) forum
Our forum is free and provides a safe place for adult burn survivors to connect and support each other by discussing and sharing their personal experiences of burns related issues. It’s easy to use: simply browse the ‘recent topics’ listed in each category to see what’s being talked about. You can post, comment or reply by clicking an existing topic or if you can’t find what you’re looking for, start a new topic by clicking into a category, click add topic, name it and type your message. You need to be registered to use our forum so please register or login
If at any time you are unhappy with posts you see on our forum, please report it to forumadmin@adultburnsupportuk.org.
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Topic starter
30/12/2020 4:29 pm
Hi I am new here. I wasn’t sure whether this would be the right place for me because my wounds are self inflicted and I don’t want to trigger anybody. I am in hospital for my mental health as I have been very unwell. I have 3 or 4 full thickness burns. I am really struggling to cope with the pain. The staff don’t understand the pain I’m in. I am on paracetamol, codeine and naproxen. Does anybody have any pain relieving techniques that have genuinely worked?
Thank you.
30/12/2020 8:41 pm
Dear Absleath,
Thanks for your message and please do not feel like you cant reach out for help or comment on this forum because your wounds were self inflicted. The pain of a burn, however it is received, is on another level than anyone who hasn’t been burned can even possibly begin to imagine. To try and describe it to people, I often say, it was a living hell for the first 3 weeks post burn. I remember being on a morphine drip and being allowed a top up every so often and desperately pressing it all the time to try and get more. May I ask how newly burned you are? As I did find the initially crippling pain dropped off down to extremely painful but easier to cope with after 3-4 weeks. I think they brought me off the morphine around then and onto the likes of tramadol, amitriptyline, gabapentin. I was on those probably for another year or two.. but weaned myself off over time.
In terms of pain management the best advice I think is to get on top of the pain and keep on top of it.. i.e. take the pain meds on time and never be late and allow the pain to rear its full head. I also used mental techniques to deal with the pain, learning to take my mind away from it to nicer places. I used to try and pretend I was lying on a beach and was actually sunburned rather than burned.. as a way to try and cope with it. I wish I could wave a magic wand for you and make the pain disappear, but I promise you it will in time get less and less. Grit your teeth and dig deep.
Best,
Polski
Topic starter
01/01/2021 4:25 pm
Hi polski,
Thank you for your reply. I guess I felt a bit of a fraud. My burns are of varying degrees. They are all very deep though. The one on my hand is quite a big, 3rd degree burn which seems to be healing ok but with healing is when the pain starts to return. That pain is awful. Being in hospital atm I can’t get them to prescribe me anything more than a combination of paracetamol, codeine and naproxen, which they know are not helping. It’s like what you said, it is impossible to describe to somebody what the pain feels like.