Pain Mgmt. Strategy: Distract

During a PET scan you're enclosed in a small tube for anywhere from half an hour to over an hour.  Before I knew that I could have a sedative for my PET scans, I used a distraction technique to reduce the claustrophobia I felt..  This is simply focusing on the details of some intricate process to distract from the medical procedure taking place.


First think of something you like to do that has intricate and/or multiple steps.  I like to play poker, and I also like to cook.  Both of these things can be considered complex tasks that have intricate steps.  Once during a 70-minute PET scan, I focused on a detailed recipe for a coconut cake that was made completely from scratch.  It involved using fresh coconut water to make coconut milk and coconut cream, as well as the fresh flesh of a coconut both plain and toasted to coat the frosted cake.  You have to make the coconut milk and cream at least a day in advance unless you’re going to spend all day making your cake, so this recipe was a perfect one for me to use to distract myself from my claustrophobia.


In my head I would imagine shopping for the cake and frosting ingredients, then treating the coconut to access the water and flesh.  Then I would use those things to prepare the coconut milk, cream and flakes.  Finally I would mix the cake ingredients, bake the cake, prepare the frosting, and finish the cake.  It would take me over an hour to envision this whole process, and it would make the time I was in the PET scan tube fly by.  Before I knew it, the test was finished.



The other thing I would do to provide distraction would be to deal out poker hands to myself and several imaginary opponents.  I would calculate the number of ‘outs’ my hand had and convert those outs to probabilities.  If you like mathematics, there are an infinite number of ways to use it as a distraction.



If you’re a gardener, you might plan out a flower, herb or vegetable garden.  Will your garden be in a field, planter box or pots?  What will you use to prep the soil?  When and how will you plant it?  How will you water and treat it to get the best growth results?  What will it look like and how will you use the output once your garden flourishes?



Maybe you’re interested in writing a novel.  You could plan out your story line and map the dramatic elements – that will definitely fill some time!  If your interest is in non-fiction (memoirs and self-help books, etc.) you could plan out your book proposal for review by an agent.



An added benefit to this form of distraction is that when you focus on a single process over an hour or so, you’ll have that image – and the details it contains – very clear in your mind, and probably now stored in your long-term memory.  It’s a great opportunity to consolidate a plan while distracting yourself from the details of your test.



The various ways to distract are limitless – just find something you like to do that requires some detailed thought and then review the whole thing in your head.  Focus on those details, and you’ll find the medical procedure you’re undergoing may retreat to the background.