Camojeeper,
Several things you can do. Consider switching to an inside the waistband holster since if you go down a bruised hip or "lovehandle" is less painful or dangerous to deal with. Otherwise about the only things you could do is wear heavy/padded layer of jacket or vest to help distribute the impact and try to tuck your arms in and roll on impact.
Then you have the wise guy response of "just don't wreck" and avoid the issue.
An earlier post by Fired00d is correct "memory recall" is important for those that carry concealed a lot since your body will go for the "usual" location under stress and if you change locations a lot you may just pull out a lovehandle in a gunfight or die doing the Macarena looking for today's location.
spydyglide you are correct too in your assumption that a revolver could be more painful due to sharp edges or the cylinder digging into the body. For long term comfort or less damage on impact look for a weapon that is flat with rounded edges.
Whatever carry you choose, practice in your everyday positions drawing (you might be surprised which positions make it almost impossible to draw) and reholstering (think of trying to secure a hot gun after use).