The first squeeze of my left thumb is gentle, almost reassuring. I rate it as 0 out of 100 on the pain scale.
But as a technician ramps up pressure on the custom-made thumb-squeezing device, it becomes less pleasant. I give ratings of 2, 6 … then 36. A few squeezes later, I’m at 79.
At 84, I’m glad the test is over as I put my tender thumb to my lips.
I’ve offered myself up for a pain study at the University of Michigan, in a long, low-slung building northeast of the university’s main campus in Ann Arbor. As the day wears on, I’ll undergo needle pokes, leg squeezes and an MRI scan — all part of a grand bid to better understand the root cause of an individual’s pain, and point to the best solutions.
It’s an understanding that’s sorely needed. Lucky for me, I’m just a control in this experiment, and I can cry for mercy whenever I want. That’s not the case for the multitudes of people — 50 million in the US alone — who have ongoing, chronic pain, for whom the medical pause buttons are far from adequate.
