Other Living with chronic pain

[RavenGirl]

@acuhealth, if this works so we'll how come the neurologists don't seem to know about it? If it worked I'd have it done in a heartbeat. I've had migraines since I was 16 years old and chronic pain since 1989. I'm to the point where I can't take anything for the chronic pain because I have allergic reactions to do many drugs.

 

[joeylittle]

@RavenGirl - that was spam, sorry!

 

[RavenGirl]

I figured it was something like that. ;)

 

[foreveralone2099]

anyone find chronic pain causes anger issues? i found myself becoming much more selfish as i became sick as i knew others did not have the burden i did. generally speaking i had a much lower threshold for my emotions and didn't really give a shit if i was borderline abusive at times, although i seem to remember that always that kind of behavior was directed at bullies or others who mistreated me.

good to read that i'm not alone in having experienced this. strange that everyone seems to fall into depression. maybe it's not socially acceptable for us, esp as women, to extravert how we really feel. i wonder if the guy on this thread felt he got enough "credit" for his pain.

 

[Randomdude]

Hello there. I live with chronic pain due to migraines.

Hi, had migraines since I was about 10, and found a medication that worked at 25, by pure luck.

At first they were not too bad, they would last 1-2 hours but they ramped up fast to 3hours-all day. Stress and lack of sleep are defenently catalists for me (they don't trigger them but makes them worse and alot easier to occur). Triggers that I noticed were light, noices, tastes, smells, tense moments. I was never officialy diagnosed or medicated for them. Doctors tought I was exagerating and that I was fine, parents tought it was from eating junk, because almost every time I had one I'd get sick and throw up, and teachers tought I ws faking them to skip school, as they nearly all the time start at school, 1-2 hours in, and I'd go home, even without telling anyone. I'd get about 2 a week when I was in mid school and highschool. In highschool they got worse and started to last even 2-3 days, If I fell asleep, I'd soon wake up in a daydream like state, like an awake dream, I'd feel the pain, and have this sureal nightmareish experience for hours and hours. It was like others would describe a verry bad drug trip. I could not snap out of it, even though I was awake and able to move. I'd describe it to my doctor and he would say I'm making shit up, I'm just fine and should start acting like a responsable adult and not try to skip school... Yep, I realized I was on my own and started doing something risky, but did not care as I wanted it to end. I started trying painkillers or any pills that I thought might work from reading the prospect, I'd go over the recommended dose, but I did not find anything that worked and gave up after a while. I accepted that I'l have to live with them for the rest of my life. They got worse and worse, but a few months after dropping from college, they started lowering in occurence and intensity. By the time I was 25, I would get 1 every other week on avrage and it would last 1-2 days. By this time I did have a higher tolerance to them and even though they were bad, I could bare them. This is wehn I got a root canal done, and the dentist told me to buy a few tablets of Ketoprofen and have them handy in case of sudden intense pain. I did not need them, but a few days later got a migraine and tried one, as this 1 I did not try before. about 20 min later, it was gone, just vanished. I could not believe it, It was the best day of my life. I lso was ferry pissed of and furstrated as I round this so late. Here you can buy it over the counter, and a 50mg pill works almost all the time, sometimes I need to take 2. I would recommend you mention this to a doctor and ask if it's safe for you tot try it, also check the side effects.

The way I comped with it was to just lay in bed, in a dark room, in complete silance. Any breeze, light, smell, even feeling someone's presence would make it worse. I would try to find a comfy position and relax, not move, breathe slowly. This would make me go through most of them. Getting to the bathroom was the worst as I was dizzy, I could barely stand up and getting out of bed in the middle of it would bring back the pain. The pain came in waves, 5-10 min low, then 5-10 high. Then on top of that the pain would come in 10-20 sec weaves, and the pain was like a stabbing sharp pain on my right temple, and radiate from there down my spine through the whole body, mostly synchronized with my heartbeat. Every stab felt like it was phyzicaly pushing me to the side, and if I did not hold to something I would fall. My mom says I looked like a very drunk man. Somehow these did not contribute to my depression, or at least so I think.

I did notice warning signs but not for the minor ones, I would get eye pain, blurred vision or seeing shifting spots, or splats, to the point where I could barely see ( I don't know how to explain it). The last one was a warning for bad migraine. Going out for a walk and just relaxing and trying to forget about everything did prevent a migraine from starting sometimes (1 out of 5 I would say). Removing all the stress I could and resting helped the most. Learning triggers and avoiding them also helps, but it's a long process.

Hope you can find something useful in the things I mentioned and wish you get better soon.

 

[foreveralone2099]

I was never officialy diagnosed or medicated for them. Doctors tought I was exagerating and that I was fine, parents tought it was from eating junk, because almost every time I had one I'd get sick and throw up, and teachers tought I ws faking them to skip school

it's incredible what a complete sacks of shit people from the so-called helping professions can be.

i was sick with chronic fatigue for 8 years and finally about six years i finally bullied someone into prescribing me antivirals. when they worked, i was super-super pissed: low immunity + positive ebv titers = possible ongoing viral infection isn't exactly rocket science.

i think with any medical problem you just have to be persistent, which is really hard when you're sick, mostly because it tends to leave you broke.

also don't take any shit from doctors.

 

[whiteraven]

I'm really late coming to this thread, but deeply appreciate all of the posts in it!

I've been living with chronic pain in a variety of forms for several years. Chronic migraine, severe back pain, and now occipital neuralgia (which was originally misdiagnosed as chronic migraine).

I also have been having myofascial pain that no one has been able to diagnose, but which seems to be worse after I eat foods with gluten in them. I was diagnosed with celiac 2-3 years ago. Managing that has helped to manage that pain.

Specifically, though, I was looking for a thread on pain because for the last 2 weeks or so I've had a flare-up of severe lower back pain. I have trouble sitting, walking, lying down. It has me in tears. And like with the depression, everybody tells me I'm just not doing enough to help myself. It enrages me. Because I do as much as I can with the resources I have. I've tried heat and cold (helps when applied only), over-the-counter meds (doesn't help at all), had MRIs (free where I work), and physical therapy for a time (it made it worse). The last doc I saw, which was quite some time ago, told me she thought I should delay any type of exercise program until I had facet injections, which I can't afford. Exercise, even walking, aggravates it, although on good days I do sometimes take short walks and I do, of course, do the walking required on a usual day.

I just recently found a medication to control my head pain from the occipital neuralgia, which had been daily for months. Now this. It adds immensely to the depression, as someone here mentioned. It increases my anger level. I'm in tears much of the time. It increases my level of hopelessness.

 

[Hope4Now]

@whiteraven, I just found this thread while looking for something on chronic pain. I'm so sorry you're dealing with this. I am going to post something on chronic pain soon. No answers, but interesting things to think about in terms of the overlap between various types of chronic pain syndromes and psychiatric issues such as PTSD. All overlap in the central nervous system, so often specific treatments aimed at particular painful body parts are not effective at all.

 

[deeplyloved]

I live with chronic joint pain and though I have a rheumatologist and diagnosis, I am open to considering how trauma contributed to this condition and how stress exacerbates it. My therapist talks a lot about extreme self care and I do notice that when I can manage to "do all the things" my pain level decreases to manageable levels. But "doing all the things" isn't as simple as it sounds... I keep trying! The hardest thing is to learn about spoons and parceling out my energy and tasks to be more gentle with myself. I often resent it, but it's better to do this than to end up bedridden for days at a time.