Chronic Pain Support Group
Physicians and professionalsdefine pain as chronic if it lasts longer than three to six months and is persistent. It's distinct from acute pain that is a direct result of injury or trauma. This support group is dedicated to those suffering from chronic pain. Discuss treatments that have worked for you, find advice for your specific experience, and find support. You're not...
Pain I am used to - it has been 19 years now, though it has only been horrible pain for the last few years.
VA and government delays and paperwork I am used to... they have processes that rarely have speed up buttons.
... but this has gotten ridiculous. I have pushed through on promises of things getting better after surgery, only to find that I am not a candidate for surgery. sucks, but ok. So on to pain management... eventually???? So far the only thing that seeing the "chronic pain" specialists has done is make things worse. They looked at the meds I was taking and flipped out - getting me jerked off my muscle relaxants cold turkey. 'Cause DTs are fun during finals four months before finishing my Bachelor's degree!
The doctors want me off my tranquilizers - "for long term health reasons" with no substitutes. Right, 'cause my curling up and screaming myself unconscious two of three times a week WITH my tranquilizers will get better if I don't have the medication to keep me calm... My Psych doctor vetoed that concept!
I was supposed to take a sleep apnea test - but was never scheduled for one. So when I go back to see the pain clinic doctors on the 8th, they are not going to be happy. And I know that they are going to want to push off doing anything until that gets done.
Until then, without my muscle relaxants, I am losing functionality at a geometric rate. Two months ago I could be up and moving for up to two hours... this week I have not bee able to be functional for more than 20 minutes at a time - ten is better. If I push to 30 minutes, my chest seizes and I collapse to the ground with my diaphragm in tetanus. (For those who don't want to think hard enough to read what I just wrote, my lungs just stop working) and this can last for better than five minutes. To say it is painful is a understatement. To say it is scary, does not begin to cover it.
I was seeing this group voluntarily to see about getting off the short term break through meds, and onto some sustained release pain management. I can't help but wonder if I would not be better off just going back to my Primary Care Doctor who doesn't know anything about treating chronic pain and just telling him that I want to try going on Gabaton (?) I have it written down somewhere. Then also keep my opiates for break through pain.
Meanwhile, I have one VA counselor bugging me to find a full time job while the work source counselor wants me to just apply for full disability and get off her books.
I have stuff to do. I have a house that is killing me - literally as the insulation and almost all of the dry wall is full of black mold. I have to get my life pack/sorted so we can move out, but only being able to move for 20 minutes a day is going to take YEARS to pack us out of this house!!!! I have be to be able to function at least a couple hours a day...
So far today I have taken a total of five hours of naps, been awake for five hours, and done 15 minutes of action - and I am physically done. It has taken me 30 minutes to eat half my dinner... but I am still working on it.
I have no $$ to go outside the VA, so I am stuck. I just want to scream. If I can't get help soon I am going to go just sit in the Patient Advocate office and see what they can get done...
yadlim the stressed Misha who is going nuts with the fireworks
VA and government delays and paperwork I am used to... they have processes that rarely have speed up buttons.
... but this has gotten ridiculous. I have pushed through on promises of things getting better after surgery, only to find that I am not a candidate for surgery. sucks, but ok. So on to pain management... eventually???? So far the only thing that seeing the "chronic pain" specialists has done is make things worse. They looked at the meds I was taking and flipped out - getting me jerked off my muscle relaxants cold turkey. 'Cause DTs are fun during finals four months before finishing my Bachelor's degree!
The doctors want me off my tranquilizers - "for long term health reasons" with no substitutes. Right, 'cause my curling up and screaming myself unconscious two of three times a week WITH my tranquilizers will get better if I don't have the medication to keep me calm... My Psych doctor vetoed that concept!
I was supposed to take a sleep apnea test - but was never scheduled for one. So when I go back to see the pain clinic doctors on the 8th, they are not going to be happy. And I know that they are going to want to push off doing anything until that gets done.
Until then, without my muscle relaxants, I am losing functionality at a geometric rate. Two months ago I could be up and moving for up to two hours... this week I have not bee able to be functional for more than 20 minutes at a time - ten is better. If I push to 30 minutes, my chest seizes and I collapse to the ground with my diaphragm in tetanus. (For those who don't want to think hard enough to read what I just wrote, my lungs just stop working) and this can last for better than five minutes. To say it is painful is a understatement. To say it is scary, does not begin to cover it.
I was seeing this group voluntarily to see about getting off the short term break through meds, and onto some sustained release pain management. I can't help but wonder if I would not be better off just going back to my Primary Care Doctor who doesn't know anything about treating chronic pain and just telling him that I want to try going on Gabaton (?) I have it written down somewhere. Then also keep my opiates for break through pain.
Meanwhile, I have one VA counselor bugging me to find a full time job while the work source counselor wants me to just apply for full disability and get off her books.
I have stuff to do. I have a house that is killing me - literally as the insulation and almost all of the dry wall is full of black mold. I have to get my life pack/sorted so we can move out, but only being able to move for 20 minutes a day is going to take YEARS to pack us out of this house!!!! I have be to be able to function at least a couple hours a day...
So far today I have taken a total of five hours of naps, been awake for five hours, and done 15 minutes of action - and I am physically done. It has taken me 30 minutes to eat half my dinner... but I am still working on it.
I have no $$ to go outside the VA, so I am stuck. I just want to scream. If I can't get help soon I am going to go just sit in the Patient Advocate office and see what they can get done...
yadlim the stressed Misha who is going nuts with the fireworks
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I invited Bill to have dinner with me last Sunday. He wasn't willing to drive 7 hours to mid Michigan and teased me with his beautiful ribs!!! So, of course I ate alone and had cedar salmon
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check out that smoke ring. It tasted really good. I smothered it with Maulls BBQ sauce which is Local to St. Louis and one of the best I ever had.....
Gentle hugs
I don't own this house. My mother-in-law does. She is also the one who is covering 100% of our expenses right now as we have zero income. I keep trying to go with the concept that hubby could work if he felt better form not living in mold or we lived in an area that was not saturated with IT. But she is worried about being able to get her investment back out of the house - which is not possible as we bought during the housing boom and paid almost a quarter million for what would now be worth $150,000 if the house was perfect. With having to demo the house and put a new one up, there is no chance to get the $250,000 back out of it.
So, I am fighting to be able to get out of it at all... It does not help when what little energy I have goes to working out arguments between mother-in-law and daughter....
yadlim the stressed
anyway sending prayers up for you....hugs bill
It is the same thing with the long acting pain meds... they want a battery of tests to be done before they will even think of letting me on them because if I am one of the "1 in 4" people who have sleep apnea, they have to prescribe different meds at different levels.
In the last 9 years since I crushed my spine, I have seen about 30 different doctors, two did not believe my pain levels were what I said they were. Most doctors watch me walk into the room and ask if this is just a bad pain day or normal. I have an odd gait so that I do not put any jarring motion on my spine in the least as I move. Combine that with the dog helping me walk and no one questions my pain. Once they see me trying to hide my shaking hands they stop questioning me and just talk to hubby.
So - yeah, my issues have a lot to do with the recent issues the VA has been having, just not the ones that have been hitting the news!
Let a pain clinic handle your meds not your reg dr-they shouldn't be able to deny you that!
I am sorry - I am so frustrated by these doctors I can't see straight. Now that my whole concentration is not on getting my degree, I have realized just how bad I actually feel compared even to last fall.
Sigh. Well, I am off to go pack a bin. (Plastic bins are for stuff we are keeping, boxes are for stuff that is going away)
yadlim the tired
Hope you get some rest today. We are still waiting for the deer to fatten up!
lol do you ever feel just a bit evil? hehehehe
yadlim - just about ready to go finish that back bedroom!!!