We often face this confusing picture when a patient searches through their test results to find the reason for their severe pain. When we have a medical condition, it is a natural reaction to ask for all the latest possible tests for that condition to find the reason behind it. We go through so many painful, long or expensive tests to find out why we have so much pain. When it comes to trying to get rid off sever pain, nothing seems too remote and we want to get to the bottom of the issue.
It becomes so frustrating for pain patients when they go through all the possible tests hoping they can find the source of their pain and the test results come back normal. It becomes a very personally and emotionally taxing issue. Pain patients already have to fight the world around them to prove their pain to them. As the pain cannot be seen and can only be felt by the affected patient, people tend to have difficulty understanding it and even worse, having difficulty believing it. Now imagine how hard it is for someone who has difficulty with others who don’t believe their pain, facing normal test results of their thorough investigations.
If the pain is real, why the source can’t be found in test results?
The answer lies behind the actual nature of chronic pain. In many instances, the chronic pain is not a result of any structural damage to the tissues we examine. In many cases it is a state of malfunction in the nervous system and most of our tests are designed to check the structure of tissues and not their function. So having a negative test results is helpful to rule out many different structural problems. It can help to rule out things like cancer, ligament -bone -tendon -cartilage damages or nerve tissue degeneration. Basically the negative test result can help you to know what you don’t have and not always helpful in knowing what you have.
It certainly is not an indication of invalidity of your pain. Your chronic pain is real even if all your test results are normal. It can happen.
That is why we should always treat the patient and not the test results!
