Kids: Why
Do I Have Pain?
Waking up with a sore throat that
really hurts when you swallow. Jamming your finger at
basketball practice. Playing a video game for so long that
your wrist aches. These situations are different, but
they have one thing in common: they all make you say "Ouch!"
When your body is injured in some
way or something else is wrong, your nerves
(cells that help your body send and receive
information) send millions of messages to your brain about
what's going on. Your brain then makes you feel pain. So if
you put your hand on a hot stove, your nerves call your brain,
and your brain sends the message that your hand hurts. You get
this message and pull your hand away from the hot stove, which
saves your hand from further injury.
People don't come with warning
lights, like the lights on a car dashboard that let the driver
know when the car is low on oil or gas. We need the sensation
of pain to let us know when our bodies need extra care.
It's an important signal.
When we sense pain, we pay
attention to our bodies and can take steps to fix what hurts.
Pain also may prevent us from injuring a body part even more.
If it didn't hurt to walk on a broken leg, a person might keep
using it and cause more damage. If your throat is really sore,
you'll probably go to the doctor, who can treat the infection
if you have one.
Doctors and other health
professionals use a person's pain as a clue in
figuring out what is wrong. Here are some questions a doctor
may ask about pain:
- Where does it hurt?
- Does it hurt all the time?
- When did it start hurting?
- Does the pain stay in one
place or move around?
- Does anything make the pain
feel better?
- What makes it
worse?
