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Medical Do any of you experience pseudo physical pain?

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Still Standing

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I was just wondering if any of you have to deal with the frustration of pseudo physical pain and real physical pain? I wanted to whine :roflmao: and cry :grumpy: yesterday and into last night. I thought I was having another attack of diverticulitis. I was in miserable pain. I was alone. Having tried to sleep and failed, because of the pain and the terrible bloating, I drove myself to the ER. Having done everything they could think of, with no real answers, they sent me home, after I was there for 7 hours, long enough to have let the pain meds wear out. ...can't drive your self home after being given narcotics...have to wait 4 hours before doing so. I felt so foolish and embarrassed to be told there was nothing wrong, except for elevated liver enzymes. So, I left the hospital still in pain and still am, as I type. I do have an appointment with my internist on Friday. Guess I will see what he has to say. In the mean time, the only thing I have been told to do is live on a liquid diet for 48 hours. Ugh! :hungover: Have any of you had to deal with being able to tell what is real pain and what is not? As a side note, I am a chronic pain person stemming from too many surgeries and invasive and needle procedures. Interestingly enough, the PTSD did not kick in and I tolerated all the needles this time. Guess THAT was a plus!
 
Yes, I am in chronic pain.. and many times I can't tell if it's body memories, I'm holding on to something, or actual damage to my body thru the years.. I do find if I unload about things when I'm like that, as being in that kind of pain brings my walls down a lot... and I'm cranky and miserable... just the writing it all out helps... that's the only way I know if part of it was holding on to something, because I feel relief, especially the next day....

I'm sorry if you have diverticulitis... that is very painful , very... as twisted as this sounds, I hope it's just something you are holding onto... and it will work it's way out... but letting you know, I do understand... gentle hugs if you accept.
 
Yes,
I've got hypermobile joints, so I easily get minor dislocations. They can press on nerves and the pain can appear to be coming from anywhere along that nerve. Sciatica is a well known example of that, the nerve is being nipped where it enters the spine, and the pain is felt down the hip and leg.

I also get phantom pain/ body memories

Aside from those. IMO, there is a huge problem of epistemic arrogance from some doctors.

Instead of saying "I don't know why you are experiencing pain, I'm not able to find anything, but phenomena necessarily have causes, so there must be something"

You'll get something more like "no, there's nothing there"

Unfortunately, the intellectual heirs of barbers (that's where the buggers sprang from, they weren't "healers", they cut hair and flesh, and formed a very aggressive guild) put themselves on a pedestal, and some people in our society come to believe the larger portion of what they say that is baseless, with the same reverence as the far smaller portion that actually has at least a little evidential base.

There's a really good paper up on Alison Reiheld's page on academia.edu that deals with some of the aspects t's of medical is action and validation and invalidation, from a feminist viewpoint
It's called "Patient complains of... how medicalization mediates power and justice"

It's really good, but doesn't go as far as I just have in contesting the sense of entitlement and epistemic arrogance, held by an unfortunate number of physicians.
 
Ok, I have to admit that I do not know about memory pain. I have seen a few mentions of it on this site but did not think it could apply to me. After last night's episode, I wonder if this might be an issue. After what you both have shared it certainly makes sense that it could. (And BTW, I chronically have diverticulitis and no one wants to touch me with a ten foot pool because of all the scar tissue in my abdomen. Therefore, we try to manage it via a plant-based diet and medicines, when necessary. ) So my tummy is always uncomfortable to some degree. But last night's pain has been building for a couple of weeks, just like the normal way the D'itis happens. I have had one other time when I was rushed to the hospital, last year, with the Dr. thinking I had severe diverticulitis only to find nothing wrong, yet the previous real attack put me in the hospital with sepsis. All the attacks, real or otherwise, progress and feel the same. These two false alarms now make me wonder if I will be able to distinguish between a real attack and fake one. I see my psych doc tomorrow. I had not planned on putting anything else on the table but I suppose this needs to be mentioned. The way things are going in therapy, I will be there well into my 80's!!! That means that my young doc will finally be a seasoned older gent and I will have been some of the salt he collected along the way. I will do some research on body memories. Thank you so much for sharing. :tup:
 
I've had diverticulitis 18 times in my life. It a pain that just doubles you over. Thankfully I haven’t had it in awhile. I live alone so when I need to go to the ER, I have to refuse the pain meds they offer so I can drive to the pharmacy and then home. Not a fun trip. Have even driven myself to the ER when I’ve had viral meningitis, Dr was pissed I drove myself. OH WELL!!!!

Anyways, I too have chronic pain disorders and honestly I will have pain and I don’t know if it’s from a condition or body memory. Then I wait things out, usually till it’s to late and then I’m really in deep shit.

I’m sorry @Still Standing that you too suffer from chronic pain. Many of us here do and I have often wondered if it’s to all of the physical and mental shit we’ve gone through throughout our lives. Hope you get this figured out.

One other thought.... Could you be experiencing bowel spasms??? I’ve had them and they are not pleasant....
 
Hey She Cat, you might be on to something! I will ask about bowel spasms...'cause I do get those because of suffering for years with a partial bowel blockage from twisted bowels. After an exploratory surgery, the bowel was left kinked into a ball the size of a grapefruit. Since this was back in the early 80's, many Drs. still treated us women as having mental health issues rather than a real complaint, if they could not find a tangible answer to our pain. After the "correction" surgery, the Dr.s treated me thinking I was having depression and anxiety issues. It was not until 10 years later that a radiologist discovered the "mass". THEN they went back in and put things in order. I still have sporadic bouts of terrible pain to this day from that blockage. It never occurred to me that my body was remembering and acting out pain. It is so much a part of my life, I have never stopped to think about it. Well, duh! Talking things out (or typing things out) makes for a way to logically approach issues that have never made sense before. You, Ladee, and Anarchy just got the ball rolling for me. Now I will discuss this issue with both of my docs and see what they have to say about it. It makes sense to me. Thanks for sharing.
 
every day. Mine is either from fibro or body memories -- which is when the pain of injuries from trauma stay in the body long after they have healed. It can get really bad during flashbacks or therapy sessions. There is a really good book called The Body Keeps the Score that talks about the whats and whys of what your brain makes your body feel
 
Vindicated!!!! Yay! I am not as nuts as I thought I was!!! Saw the good doc today and he said I am, indeed, on the other side of diverticulitis again. The pain is real!!!! Funny to be rejoicing over real pain. My last trip to the ER was also warranted and not 'in-my-head-pain'. So much for medical staff telling me there was "nothing" wrong. Guess no one read the test results. But the records both recorded REAL reasons for such misery What a relief to know that I still know what real bodily pain feels like. But the clear liquid diet stinks so I can gibbitz about that! :dpressed:
 
How bad is that? You felt the pain so it was real whether they could find it or not! I am glad you feel vindicated - and remember this next time you need to go and see them again.

Hope you can get it sorted (I have no idea what the long term treatment for diverticular disease is)
 
No problem with bitching about the liquid diet !! Hearing you... but am happy you were vindicated... nothing like being dismissed by doctors, but that is a real thing now days, whether we have PTSD or not.... or being given the wrong DX or, the wrong meds.... We have a major health care crisis here in the States, and it is so expensive to be getting half assed care.... hope the liquid diet helps your tummy to heal and settle down... diverticulitis is very painful... hope you are feeling better soon..
 
@Still Standing Gotta tell you. For years Drs told me that I should not eat...

Nuts
Seeds
Tomatoes
Cucumber
Popcorn
Corn
Seeded rye bread
Strawberries
Blackberries
Blueberries
Squash (yellow or Zucchini)

And the list when on and on. Anything that had seed, or nuts I was NOT to eat. Still I got diverticulitis.

Then I said f*ck it and started eating ANYTHING and EVERYTHING from the NO NO list. Why??? Because everything on their NO NO list had FIBER in it. We NEED fiber in our diets to make everything move along nicely. If you get y drift...

Haven’t had an episode of Diverticulitis in yrs.... I don’t advocate this diet for anyone, it I’m just sayin.......
 
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