Fainting from Pain

Some people tend to faint. It's from a lack of oxygen. I used to faint in very hot, stuffy places (church in the summer). Once I was bit by a great dane. When I saw my face in the mirror, I fainted. I haven't fainted since I was 14 years old.
I'm sure some might faint from pain; it's very plausible.

Most who faint are only out for a few seconds or, perhaps a minute or two.

There is no range of pain. As much as you can consider that the loss of a limb would be excruciatingly painful, there is nothing in medical "science" that can gauge it's painfullness. That also applies to your other questions. You can have that person out for as long as you want.

I don't know about being tortured and having limbs cut off. but when I was in my very early teens, I used to get such bad pains in my stomach when I got a period, that I used to see stars and then faint, I'd be out for around 20 mins/half an hour each time. I think I have a pretty high threshold of pain, but they used to do me in every time.


Elodie

Akuma, I think adrenaline kicks in before pain...
I once went though orthopedic surgery without fainting, and w/o hospital setting or any anst or meds. Me so stupid...
I had 5 breaks in my arm from rollar blading---by the time I got to her she said we needed to get into surgery right away and push the largest bone back into place before setting---
I had two kids with me, just had ate lunch @ 1:00 and she couldn't schedule surgery til' 8:00 that eve.
I said no, I don't have time---can you do this in the office.?..she said you'll never survive the pain...It's never been done...Told her to get me some release forms ...its happening now.
hAhh, I really did need to bite a bullet and I dripped sweat, depite the cold... I thought surgeon was going to faint....There was four doctors, and three nurses in the room shaking their heads... Hubby did faint.

BTW...never again...put me OUT

Rich said:

There is no range of pain. As much as you can consider that the loss of a limb would be excruciatingly painful, there is nothing in medical "science" that can gauge it's painfullness. That also applies to your other questions. You can have that person out for as long as you want.

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Actually, they do have a pain scale. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/back-pain-treatment/BA99999/PAGE=BA00004

It's self-reporting.

The only times I came close it was because of a lack of oxygen - the pain had me holding my breath too long. Fainting is caused by a sudden drop in blood pressure, which can be triggered by any number of things physical and psychological. Usually it's shock, caused by pain.

The scale C.Bronco linked to is the only one I've ever seen used in hospitals.

Now, if you wanna talk about pain making you throw up - just wait for your first kidney stone!

C. Bronco.

There are many pain scales. I meant in the real world.

The Mayo Clinic is in the real world. My Mom broke her back. Her Doctors do use the pain scale.

They use it to get some indication of the degree of pain--accent on "Some" indication. People have an enormous variation on what some feel as pain and what some feel as merely discomfort. There are many factors: mental condition, source of pain, lifestyle, nerve damage, etc.

I don't think there is a exact answer to your questions. Most of the tolerances will vary from person to person.

We had one guy faint at the sight of animals being killed, but otherwise he was tough as an ox.

I've seen some get broken ribs, crushed arms, smashed jaws, loose eyes and none of 'em faint. Usually if they did go out, it was due to being knocked out.

I think the only time I ever fainted was when I walked into a room and my wife was watching some medical program where a guy was getting a vasectomy. Boom, that was it for me.

As for major trauma of limb loss......well, that depends on the person. We had an Lt. that had his arm and shoulder blown off and he kept going. Till the blast knocked him and the blood loss knocked him out.

What do they feel at recovery? Usually pain and depending on the reason for injury, various levels of mental stress/anguish.

As for being out due to pain........in my experience, never more than two minutes.......and again that's mainly due to being knocked out, not from fainting. I was out for about 20 seconds when I fainted.

As for a "faint range" I do buy into that, only because different people have different levels. Same with pain. I think it's all in their mind.

Hope that helps.........sorry if it's all garbled, I'm rushing at the moment.

Ah, I saw the Mayo Clinics pain scale--a scale of one to ten--about as accurate as a 19th century country doctor would've applied to his patients.

Only Mayo has a fancy computirized graph.

The thing that I see about the pain scale is that your 2 might be my 10. My 8 might be your 9. It's kinda subjective.

Maybe not for the faint-of-heart

After her first two C-Sections, my wife fainted each time when those cruel, heartless, evil and vindictive nurses made her go the bathroom (I mean, I have to change her bedpan on a daily-basis normally, why couldn't they do it while she was in hospital? But I digress...).

Each time she told the nurses ahead of time that she was in a lot of pain and that she wabout to faint. "Oh everyone says that, dear," they said. Then she fainted.

First time I wasthere to assist and actually caught her (dead weight is no laughing matter either), the second time I wasn't there, but the nurses were mob-handed.

It also took three of those smelling-salt/amonia things to get her back again after the first one (which also amazed the nurses).

Now obviously she was in some pain there, major abdominal surgery and all. I had a shattered wisdom tooth removed without the anesthetic kicking in at all. Full nasty job, cut the gum, drill into the jaw-bone to get under the root for leverage. Each time they went at it, I was in incredible pain and each time they stopped I would relax and realize that actually only the back of my head and the heels of my feet were touching the desntists seat during the work.

It's horses for courses. I am sure my wife would have fainted during the tooth surgery. Doubt I would have fainted going potty, but I don't know. You really don't until you're there.

I once wanted to faint and had to fight it off. I was out riding my horse by myself and she fell with me. I landed on my should and snapped the collarbone clean through. It was a compound fracture and stuck out through the skin. It was all I could do not to faint or vomit. Things kept narrowing to a dark little tunnel but I just kept repeating "Don't throw up. Don't pass out." like a sort of mantra. I knew if I passed out on a trail (in January no less) that I would be in a heap of trouble. But I could have easily given in and passed out.

I once had a glass break in my hand and cut my finger fairly deep. It didn't hurt right away, but I did faint. I was all alone at the time, but I'm sure that I was out for less than a minute. I felt so silly about fainting as I've always prided myself on my high pain tolerance. A few years later I had an even worse cut to different finger, one with even more blood, but no fainting. The first cut, with the broken glass, must've cut at just the right spot, as I still get pain along that scar, nearly 5 years later.

Soccer Mom said:

I once wanted to faint and had to fight it off. I was out riding my horse by myself and she fell with me. I landed on my should and snapped the collarbone clean through. It was a compound fracture and stuck out through the skin. It was all I could do not to faint or vomit. Things kept narrowing to a dark little tunnel but I just kept repeating "Don't throw up. Don't pass out." like a sort of mantra. I knew if I passed out on a trail (in January no less) that I would be in a heap of trouble. But I could have easily given in and passed out.

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So.....what happened? Did you hoof your way out (pardon the pun), or did other riders come by and find you?

Some years ago I had an operation to realign my kneecap after a sporting injury. I had to come back in as an out patient to get fluid drained on a few occasions. On one such occasion, a couple of hours after the procedure, I was driving when my leg suddenly seized with the most excruciating pain.

I pulled into the side of the road, got out of the car and immediately collapsed; my leg couldn't support me. A couple of drivers stopped and phoned an ambulance; by this time my leg had swollen to about twice its normal size and was as hard as a brick. In the ambulance the leg kept swelling and they had to cut my trousers off. On reaching the hospital the leg was looking fit to burst and the pain was unbearable. I remember a sensation of - not passing out - but as if I was coming back round and the doctor and nurses were slowly swimming back into focus. It couldn't have lasted any more than a couple of seconds, but it did feel as if I'd shut down for a brief moment or two.

I've also been knocked unconscious on a couple of occasions, and the sensation was very similar. I didn't feel myself going, just coming back, and again it was only for a few seconds.

I fainted when I dislocated my kneecap - which, by the way, is intensely painful. Also when having a grommet (a small plastic tube which keeps a hole open through the ear drum) pulled out without anaesthetic.

So, yes, it's possible to faint as a result of pain. What the medical reason is, I don't know.

Maybe...

it's passing out from pain and not fainting?

I tend to think of fainting as due to heat, shock and the onset of those wretched viruses where you feel awful, try to stand, suddenly become dizzy want to vomit, then faint.

Fainting is also a way to escape something a person finds unpleasant. Girls in a long school assembly, the dreaded gym class etc.

Passing out happens as a result of terrible pain. But of course that 'terrible' is subjective and each person's tolerance is individual.

Rich said:

They use it to get some indication of the degree of pain--accent on "Some" indication. People have an enormous variation on what some feel as pain and what some feel as merely discomfort. There are many factors: mental condition, source of pain, lifestyle, nerve damage, etc.

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All of those variables inmeasurable. That's the problem. One can only ask "What is intolerable to you."

I think there's a slight difference between fainting and passing out due to severe injury. Though both are physiological, fainting is often tied in to the emotional reaction that goes along with the injury. Some people faint from something that may be only moderately painful, just because it's a particularly squeamish or shocking type of injury. For example, I had 2 episodes; one when I got my eye lanced in the doctor's office (not really that painful, but icky!) and once during an emotionally grueling session with a psychotherapist. In both instances I hyperventilated first as a reaction to the stress/shock, then got buzzy and grayed out. I see that as different in severity from passing out due to actual blood loss from a huge loss of blood, eg. a war wound--in that scenario a person might be out a lot longer, until his blood volume is restored.

Vanatru said:

So.....what happened? Did you hoof your way out (pardon the pun), or did other riders come by and find you?

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Aargh! very punny. I hiked my way out. And I had to lead my horse because I couldn't mount up. As soon as I got close enough to home, I started yelling and hubby came out and found me and took me to the ER. But he was furious that I made him untack and check my horse first. I was worried she had gotten hurt in the fall. Yes, I know. It made sense at the time. She was a great horse. She stood still and let me literally haul myself up her leg and hang on her side all the way home.

After that I always wore my riding helmet (I hit my head too) and always told someone where I was riding in case they had to come find me. This was a good thirteen or fourteen years ago.

ETA: And back on topic, it sort of came in waves. I'd think I was better and wasn't going to faint (or pass out) and then things would narrow to a little pinprick of light. It really felt like being in a long tunnel.