A Letter To People Without Chronic Pain

[bhudika]

After trying pretty much every analgesia going I have just given up and chucked the entire lot down the khazi now, that goes for cannabis as well , its all bloody useless for anything apart from bunging up torpedo tube number two or making me fall asleep in front of the telly

[gb1]

Sorry to hear that. Most if not all analgesics constipate. I can't say I blame you.

As for pain. I had one experience at the Dentist office where I had taken to much meds(oil) the night before.

The dentist was using some cauterizing stuff on my gums and I even said.."fuck that hurts" He went to give me another shot and I said NOOOOOO....I hate freeezing.

Anyway...this may sound weird but the pain all of a sudden became part of the experience(high) and I did not feel any pain.

After that happened to me....I doubt my original thoughts about pain managment with ingesting oil.

Hell, ya take enought at once and it blows Junk away ....but you won't die at least from over dosing.

I hope you find something that works for you.

Edited June 7, 2013 by gb1

[bozie]

I've just read that and almost believed it was coming from inside my head. I've been suffering with pain for almost 9 years now due to an miss diagnosis of a hernia. it took 2 1/2 years to get my op because the doctors thought I was blagging for free drugs. now 6 years after my op I have 3 kids and have to balance pain killers and cannabis. sometimes the pain takes everything out of you and the kids suffer. when will the government listen to us

[pinthetail]

nice to relate to something, the doctors dont see where im coming from when i say i cant do things.

[tonynz]

Long time lurker on this forum , It is a great source of inspiration .

Often when I am feeling devoid of ideas or lacking motivation due to far too many years

of frustration en-devouring to have Doctors not Politicians dictate medpot use down here

in NZ it is my savior.

Tomorrow I have a presentation to do with the focus being chronic pain and medpot , usually I

am preaching to the converted or in need of conversion and the need to paint a picture of just how

debilitating, all invasive but at times variable chronic pain can be.They all know.

​But I was floundering , unable to get my head around getting through to those who have not experienced it..

This thread along with the comments has saved my day, the only regret I have is not being able to attribute it to the worthy Word Smith who told it how it is so well.

tony

medpot.co.nz

[Sun Tzu]

I am so lucky with my family, and the couple of friends who have stuck around. None of them needed the letter. It's a bit shit when you wait 8 months to see a specialist, with the Pain Management Team ( ), and he could have done with a read of it. I asked him if the NHS were paying for scrambler therapy.... the fucker googled it. As soon as MJ was mentioned he frowned and shook his head (like: not another one!) I nearly wrapped my oak walking stick round the fucker's head. Why do people with zero compassion take jobs like that? I'm back to trying growing again, this time in my engine room, as I've had to be buying it for the last few years. Even with a dude who gives me old school prices I can't afford it.

If there are any CRPS sufferers out there, look up scrambler therapy yourselves and start hassling Doctors. The nearest place I could find was New Jersey. $4,000 for the treatment, probably another $4k to stay out there long enough.

Does anyone have a spare few grand?

[SorryImHigh]

Chronic Pain suffer for 5 years.. This is spot on with how i feel on a daily basis.

[lisakatie]

Cried reading that. I listened to all the advice that my friends and family have been giving me all these years. Got to the point I started trying to convince myself it was "all in my head" and I must be exaggerating how I feel. It's funny how people think exercise is the cure for all. It was the "exercise through the pain" advice that landed me at the doctors and diagnosed with not just one illness but a whole bunch of shite which funnily enough was made worse by exercise! Well, it wasn't very funny, I was in angony and fuming. Unfortunately my over sensitive system means I struggle taking even basic pain killers. My other half is the smoker and I partake maybe twice a year and on holiday. Now on a mission to find a strain that doesn't make me anxious and jumpy as I need something to help me sleep. It's one thing having insomnia, but it's a whole different story feeling desperately tired and not being able to sleep because lying down hurts. Go figure eh!

[Arnold Layne]

Now on a mission to find a strain that doesn't make me anxious and jumpy as I need something to help me sleep. It's one thing having insomnia, but it's a whole different story feeling desperately tired and not being able to sleep because lying down hurts. Go figure eh!

Ain't it just?!

Broken sleep patterns and total exhaustion go hand in glove with chronic pain, I'm afraid. What really bugs me is that I am, by nature, an early bird / morning type of person. Now, I haul my exhausted, stiff, painful old body out of bed only to face the fact that my mind is mush due to lack of good sleep.

Exhaustion of course feeds not just pain, but also mental issues like depression. Watch yourself for this, and seek help at the first sign. Please! I didn't and now I'm booked into counselling for the foreseeable..... Its just so easy to forget that the mind is a finely tuned and delicate mechanism that can get out of balance with itself quite easily, especially when it is processing pain signals 24/7.

Cat naps help, IME. I take multiple snoozes through the day, it helps.

s

My best help is owning two dogs. Have hound, be happy; that's my experience anyway.

Have a good day everyone, and if you can ~ get outside and grab some lungs full of lovely fresh early Spring air; get that rising sun on your face, and the fresh, scented wind in your hair.

[Growgreen]

Chronic pain is something I have to live with in my life, yet I'm not the sufferer. Just over five years ago my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her-2 breast cancer to be precise, which, as we were to,d is a particularly nasty and aggressive form of cancer. She was 35 at the time of diagnosis. I was working full time as a manager and my little lad was one at the time, and my step kids 13 and 11.as my wife was young the oncologist told us that they'd be hitting her really hard with the chemo, as this would give her the best chance, and she was young and fit enough to handle it. The chemo days started out at 12-13 hours long and went down to 8-9 hours for the final one. Six treatments of hell, followed but five weeks of daily radiotherapy. We came through the other Side and were told the cancer appeared to have gone, so to concentrate on getting fit and better again, and getting on with our lives. Within 3 months after treatment I think it was, my wife decided to do the race for life with her mum. She had been advised to push herself. Big massive mistake. It totally put her on her arse and she had a massive collapse of energy levels resulting in hardly being able to move for weeks. Well five years in and the pain is still there. She has since been diagnosed with M.E, or chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) as its now known, as well as fibromyalgia. These conditions affect different people differently and unfortunately my wife has been smacked about by these illnesses for far to long. After I had ten months on the sick taking care of the family over her treatment I tried going back to my job full time.it was never going to work, but I had to try as they had been really good with me. So I had to quit my managers position, and since have worked part time. 17 hours a week. And that brings us up to now. The wife is still in chronic pain and virtually lives between the sofa and the bed. She is wheelchair bound if we go out, yet if she dares to stand up to look at something people's eyes just burn through you.yes, she's in a wheelchair. It doesn't mean she can't move! But hey ho, that's peoples misinterpreted ideals, and how can you dar to use your legs when you have wheels?! Infuriates me. She has been on sleeping tablets since the cancer, and half the time these don't even work, which certainly doesn't help the situation. And why must she suffer like this? It's not very well known but Macmillan cancer care done a report and found out that either one in 3, or 5 (can't remember which) people suffer with a chronic illness for the rest of their lives after receiving cancer treatment. Things they don't tell you before your treatment. So yes, our lives have change beyond all comparison in the last five years, but,my wife is still here, and for that I am eternally grateful. I just hope that one day something can be found to help my wife return to the woman she was. Anyway, that's got that off my chest, thanks for reading those that do.

GG

Edited March 5, 2015 by Growgreen

[Arnold Layne]

You're a good man, @@Growgreen ~ Respect to you. Lesser "men" would've ducked and run long ago. Stick-ability is a virtue, but its in decline these days. My sympathies also to your lady wife. Sounds like she's having a rough time of things, poor lass.

About the wheelchair: I have a walking frame, with two wheels; its to help me when my balance goes (which it does, quite often). So some days folks on our street might see me walking my two dogs in the morning, and pushing my frame along in the afternoon. I can smell the disapproval oozing out of 'em! Some types of folks seem to think that things like balance, pain and stiffness are a fixed symptom set. So they don't allow us the discomfort of being fine and yet unwell all on the same day.

I say: Fuck them, that's their problem, not mine. If ignorance is bliss, they should be in Nirvana long since! But usually they are the folks with sour faces, and clutching the Daily Mail as their intellectual prop. Poor miserable fuckers ~ it must take some serious lack of a life to be so fucking emotionally frigid and hate-filled.

Anyhood'yado, my hats off to you, and best wishes for a decent day to Mrs Growgreen. Lighting a figurative (prayer) candle for her, if that's OK....

Honest to god, chap, Good carers like you are like hen's teeth. It says a huge lot about you, does your caring stability; I salute you ....

[Growgreen]

Thank you @@Arnold Layne. But I do it as I love her with all my heart. What other choice is there? To walk away from my family? I think not. It's like people who say to my wife she's the strongest person they know for going through chemo. What other option is there? To die?! She says it's not bravery, it just has to be done and I agree totally.

About perceptions; when my wife was pregnant, some idiot pulled out in front of us and we smashed into them. The wife banged her head and had a golf ball style lump on her forehead. As the bleeding seeped down, she was left with two black eyes! Fetching for a pregnant woman! Old people and young alike would literally cross the read when they saw us coming! Looking at me with a hate and disdain as they assumed I'd done it to her! We went to the doctors and the others in the waiting room kept tutting and shaking their head whilst looking at me! Me being me I turned to the wife and said, 'think yourself lucky, nest time you'll get the right!'! Made us laugh and everyone else just tut and mumble even worse! But hey, she had black eyes and was pregnant so I must be a wife eating monster.

GG

[lisakatie]

Exhaustion of course feeds not just pain, but also mental issues like depression. Watch yourself for this, and seek help at the first sign.

Dancing used to be my therapy, but seeing as I can't manage it at the moment I have been keeping check of the low feelings and trying to work our some coping strategy. My previous experience with counselling wasn't positive although I will seek help if things go south. Might try and learn to play a musical instrument. Whatever it is music is central to keeping the good vibes up!

I hear you about the canine love. My Neptune keeps me company most nights. I'd probably be a bundle of tears without him.

[lisakatie]

Me being me I turned to the wife and said, 'think yourself lucky, nest time you'll get the right!'! Made us laugh and everyone else just tut and mumble even worse!

Sounds like my wife and I! It's gotta be done, coz if you get sucked in to other people's judgmental narrow minded perception of you it'll only get you down and angry. Take my hat off to you @@Growgreen . Sending you and your wife big love.

[Digit]

almost brought to tears with this thread.

i dont think i've ever managed to articulate all that, n it's all so true for me too (except the bit about not wanting suggestions for more remedies... i have likely tried it before, but i'm always on the look out for more).

i've never really thought of calling what i have "chronic pain", in part because i have been given various other terms to arm myself with ("raynauds syndrome", "that old detached stomach muscle thing", "sheared veins and tendon damage", "twisted spine", "social anxiety", etc), but it's basically otherwise the same deal.

i feel so very comforted and not-alone reading that. feels good to know that there are those who "get it". ~ well, i mean, of course there are, there always are. it's just nice to read it, presented so articulately. nail on the head.

i cant really add any more.

i would start picking out items on the numbered list excitedly proclaiming "me too! that's so precisely the case!", but i wouldnt know where to stop and would end up basically saying it for every item.