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...
Reply #11 - 07/30/10 5:25am
" I have a long history of back pain. Was in great shape as a youngster, with a fire wood business in south western Oregon. Worked hard labor most of my life. I began experiencing serious pain after a work related injury to the ligaments and tendons in the lower lumbar. OMG the pain. I was in the fetal position with make me unconscious pain for over a week. I couldn't bend the position to sit on the toilet to pee. I got no pain meds and some ibuprofen for a month. The person I was working for said he had no insurance coverage for the people working for him and so he could not help with hospital nor Dr. I was 24 yrs old. i slowly got better and continued to work. The injury was caused by pushing an industrial size mop side to side rather than forward to backward as you should push it. I suddenly dropped to my knees with pain and so it goes. That was in 1984.
My mom and her mom both had disabling arthritis among other problems. My Nana living high in the Sierra mountains in a little town called Greenville, in Ca. suffered with no help her whole 80 something years and yet still shoveled the snow off her own roof every winter. She always told me, "Dear, you've just got to keep moving no matter what." My mom told me of winters that Nana would sit in the chair with a neck pillow and just cry.
My mom had pain in 1970 and when she divorced my dad in 1973 he was telling her it was all in her head and all she needed was exercise. He never was a very nice or sympathetic man. Navy man he was and he said she should just tough it out.
She was diagnosed with degenerative disc disease when she was 30 yrs.old and something about 3 bones in her tail bone which should have grown together before she was born but they didn't.
She got worse and worse, and continued to work her secretary job. one doc told her exercise, but no one ever offered PT.
She began to walk the 2-3 mile to and from work everyday in hopes it would work. never offered pain meds she drank alcohol after work until drunk enough to sleep. She was an alcoholic of sorts, at least she exhibited those types of symptoms along with using it to self medicate her pain. We began to have serious financial difficulties before she died, like not making the bills and the rent on our apt.
In 1974 she had her first back surgery, fusing the discs in middle and upper of the lower in her back. She was in traction off and on for the year before the surgeries began. She would cry herself to sleep on the old roll-out couch bed in the living room. She demanded my kid brother and I have our own bedrooms, hence she was without an adequate bed especially for a person with a bad back and in the living room.
( That roll out was horrific with a bar across the middle where your waist was, I couldn't sleep on it as a healthy kid!!)
So In her recovery from the 1st disc fusion she began even more pain than before the surgery. Within a year she was back in to fix something the 1st surgery messed up. then in a full body cast hips to neck she was expected to go to work. On the city bus one day and sitting in an outside seat about 1/2 way down the isle, the bus stopped abruptly hitting a car, and she was thrown down the isle on her back in this cast hitting her neck on the money machine.
Needless to say she was back in again for another surgery, all this time drinking more and more booze attempting to keep her job with 2 kids to care for. I was off getting into trouble and so was my bro. i don't know how she lasted a s long as she did.
The 4th surgery went real bad in early 1976 and she had an infection in the wound which went from her tailbone all the way up past he shoulder blades. She was laying in bed moaning with pain... 6 bottles of pills by the bed and she was drinking booze on top of that. The pain never went away. I had just been a teenage pregnancy victim and in June had given my so up for adoption. I was 16 yrs old.
My brother was 11 yrs old. My father had moved and told no one where he had moved to. ( He had been living in our old home 2 blocks away for 3 yrs until this time.)
So they supposedly cleaned out the infection in her wound and sent her home really quickly after the surgery. Some people were saying way too soon, she wasn't ready and others were attempting to realize that getting up and moving after back surgery was best for most. Problem was my mom wasn't in the successful surgery "most" group.
I came home to attempt to care for her and keep an eye on my kid brother, ( I had been run away at boy friends house up until then)
She was home for 2-3 days, and was bleeding like having her normal monthly female menses, except the bleeding on the 3rd day was way too heavy and there were huge 50cent piece size blood clots too. I was tying 2 huge hospital size kotex pads together and changing it every 15-20 minutes. She was in horrific pain and moaning and screaming. I called doctors and hospital.... they all blew her off........... I finally called the ambulance after the doctor at the hospital told me, "if she doesn't make it through the night, bring her in in the morning."
They came to get her and said," Oh no, not you again Barbara, haven't they taken care of you yet!?"
My best friends mom who lived in the fron apartment looked at her as they took her out and said,"She looks like she's going to die." My girl friend told her mom to shut up. I went back to my boyfriends house and proceeded to go party at the 'Hookers Ball' in San Fransisco for Halloween. I got a phone call early in the morning of Oct 31st and was told by the nurse I had better get up to the hospital because my mom was in a coma and not expected to make it.
here i was, 16 yrs old, running and gunning for lack of knowing how to deal with anything going on in my life, kid brother staying with neighbors, no known way to find my father, and I didn't know how to get in touch with any other family members like her parents, or my aunt or uncle.
I spent all day the 31st alone with her in the hospital room. She was hooked up to tubes everywhere and a machine doing the breathing for her. Thank God someone found some numbers and called extended family and they tracked down my father, as I was just not old nor mature enough to know what to do and it was all happening so fast. Right before midnight she passed away. None of my friends would come up to stay with me that day. My best friend was working and couldn't.
I remember walking outside the hospital after all the doctors tried to tell me what had happened to her. I didn't hear nor understand a word they said.
It turns out that she was pregnant when they did the surgery and no one knew it. She then miss-carried during the infection part of the deal and that was what actually killed her. A blood clot from her uterus got into her lungs and killed her. They brought her back, but too late, she was brain dead.
When I walked out of the hospital at 2-3 am it was completely silent outside.... no movement on the streets.... it was a bit cold as it was Nov. 1st........ my boyfriends room mate and his dad drove up, put me in the car and asked how she was doing. I told they she was gone.... they didn't get it until i blurted out the word, 'died.' I was in shock but no one knew it. The next day i had to go tell my kid brother she was gone. Way too much for the little girl I actually was at the time. Yet I did it anyway.... I remember walking down the street the next day completely alone in the world... told myself, well you wanted this and now you've got it... it's just you now and so you'd better get it together and be the grown-up you've been wanting to be..... and so I did........ There's more nightmare to the story... like how my father and extended family behaved afterward and at her funeral, but that's just too much for here and it doesn't matter anyway cause i knew i was on my own that day. I was 16. 1-1/2 yrs later at 18 yrs old I took custody of my kid brother from the State of Ca. with my fathers help. Anything for him not to have to deal with raising us.
The story told because it was obviously complications from the back surgery which killed her. the docs weren't thorough enough to be sure she wasn't pregnant before they did the surgery. What a crap shoot it all was.... and can still be. My moms story is one of the worst, yet it still happens that these surgeries go bad one way or another, and we need to be so careful before we allow someone to cut on us especially our spines.
I have it all in my back at 26 when I was married and began to have my children again, I was in pain 24/7. At 32 yrs old after beeing treated off and on for flare-ups with PT and pain meds I was given my first MRI. The surgeon walked in with the films and asked me how old I was again... I told him 32.... he said he wanted to be sure because I had a regular 60 yr old's back.......
Stenosis, arthritis, degenerative disc disease, herniated and slipped discs, ruptured discs etc etc....... all at 32 yrs old. No more could the docs send me away acting as if it was all in my little, complaining, female brain.
I attempted more PT but always the wrong exercises and pain would get unbearable. I just lived with it and the flare-ups for years. But the flare-ups got closer and closer and longer in duration, until one day... after taking a desk job thinking that would lessen the wear on my back (wrong! answer... sitting all day was the worst job of everything I ever did... hard labor was better for me) 3 yrs into the office work I experienced a flare-up and it never went away. That was Aug. of 2003 and the chronic pain began. What a nightmare it's been. The pain is bad enough, but the way it has hurt my family relations, my ability to work or be like a normal person is... everything in my life is dictated by my level of severe pain.
My surgeon said no surgery... thank God. But I still struggle getting the correct PT and the correct for me program to work on all the aspects of my situation and my physical symptoms.
I still have the P.T.S.D. attacks on the table when they want to do the injection procedures. I need to get some psychotherapy help to get my and my moms issues separated. and hopefully that will all get easier.
I don't know what I'd do without all of you here to help me feel not so alone with this whole thing. I was going crazy when I found you all.
You are all angels sent by God just for me.... no one can tell me different!!
Well there's a little bit of the beginning of my story. I am tired it is late will try to write more later.
In Love, Light, truth, & Service,
Stubborn TerrieAnn "
Posted on 07/30/10, 05:27 am
" I have a long history of back pain. Was in great shape as a youngster, with a fire wood business in south western Oregon. Worked hard labor most of my life. I began experiencing serious pain after a work related injury to the ligaments and tendons in the lower lumbar. OMG the pain. I was in the fetal position with make me unconscious pain for over a week. I couldn't bend the position to sit on the toilet to pee. I got no pain meds and some ibuprofen for a month. The person I was working for said he had no insurance coverage for the people working for him and so he could not help with hospital nor Dr. I was 24 yrs old. i slowly got better and continued to work. The injury was caused by pushing an industrial size mop side to side rather than forward to backward as you should push it. I suddenly dropped to my knees with pain and so it goes. That was in 1984.
My mom and her mom both had disabling arthritis among other problems. My Nana living high in the Sierra mountains in a little town called Greenville, in Ca. suffered with no help her whole 80 something years and yet still shoveled the snow off her own roof every winter. She always told me, "Dear, you've just got to keep moving no matter what." My mom told me of winters that Nana would sit in the chair with a neck pillow and just cry.
My mom had pain in 1970 and when she divorced my dad in 1973 he was telling her it was all in her head and all she needed was exercise. He never was a very nice or sympathetic man. Navy man he was and he said she should just tough it out.
She was diagnosed with degenerative disc disease when she was 30 yrs.old and something about 3 bones in her tail bone which should have grown together before she was born but they didn't.
She got worse and worse, and continued to work her secretary job. one doc told her exercise, but no one ever offered PT.
She began to walk the 2-3 mile to and from work everyday in hopes it would work. never offered pain meds she drank alcohol after work until drunk enough to sleep. She was an alcoholic of sorts, at least she exhibited those types of symptoms along with using it to self medicate her pain. We began to have serious financial difficulties before she died, like not making the bills and the rent on our apt.
In 1974 she had her first back surgery, fusing the discs in middle and upper of the lower in her back. She was in traction off and on for the year before the surgeries began. She would cry herself to sleep on the old roll-out couch bed in the living room. She demanded my kid brother and I have our own bedrooms, hence she was without an adequate bed especially for a person with a bad back and in the living room.
( That roll out was horrific with a bar across the middle where your waist was, I couldn't sleep on it as a healthy kid!!)
So In her recovery from the 1st disc fusion she began even more pain than before the surgery. Within a year she was back in to fix something the 1st surgery messed up. then in a full body cast hips to neck she was expected to go to work. On the city bus one day and sitting in an outside seat about 1/2 way down the isle, the bus stopped abruptly hitting a car, and she was thrown down the isle on her back in this cast hitting her neck on the money machine.
Needless to say she was back in again for another surgery, all this time drinking more and more booze attempting to keep her job with 2 kids to care for. I was off getting into trouble and so was my bro. i don't know how she lasted a s long as she did.
The 4th surgery went real bad in early 1976 and she had an infection in the wound which went from her tailbone all the way up past he shoulder blades. She was laying in bed moaning with pain... 6 bottles of pills by the bed and she was drinking booze on top of that. The pain never went away. I had just been a teenage pregnancy victim and in June had given my so up for adoption. I was 16 yrs old.
My brother was 11 yrs old. My father had moved and told no one where he had moved to. ( He had been living in our old home 2 blocks away for 3 yrs until this time.)
So they supposedly cleaned out the infection in her wound and sent her home really quickly after the surgery. Some people were saying way too soon, she wasn't ready and others were attempting to realize that getting up and moving after back surgery was best for most. Problem was my mom wasn't in the successful surgery "most" group.
I came home to attempt to care for her and keep an eye on my kid brother, ( I had been run away at boy friends house up until then)
She was home for 2-3 days, and was bleeding like having her normal monthly female menses, except the bleeding on the 3rd day was way too heavy and there were huge 50cent piece size blood clots too. I was tying 2 huge hospital size kotex pads together and changing it every 15-20 minutes. She was in horrific pain and moaning and screaming. I called doctors and hospital.... they all blew her off........... I finally called the ambulance after the doctor at the hospital told me, "if she doesn't make it through the night, bring her in in the morning."
They came to get her and said," Oh no, not you again Barbara, haven't they taken care of you yet!?"
My best friends mom who lived in the fron apartment looked at her as they took her out and said,"She looks like she's going to die." My girl friend told her mom to shut up. I went back to my boyfriends house and proceeded to go party at the 'Hookers Ball' in San Fransisco for Halloween. I got a phone call early in the morning of Oct 31st and was told by the nurse I had better get up to the hospital because my mom was in a coma and not expected to make it.
here i was, 16 yrs old, running and gunning for lack of knowing how to deal with anything going on in my life, kid brother staying with neighbors, no known way to find my father, and I didn't know how to get in touch with any other family members like her parents, or my aunt or uncle.
I spent all day the 31st alone with her in the hospital room. She was hooked up to tubes everywhere and a machine doing the breathing for her. Thank God someone found some numbers and called extended family and they tracked down my father, as I was just not old nor mature enough to know what to do and it was all happening so fast. Right before midnight she passed away. None of my friends would come up to stay with me that day. My best friend was working and couldn't.
I remember walking outside the hospital after all the doctors tried to tell me what had happened to her. I didn't hear nor understand a word they said.
It turns out that she was pregnant when they did the surgery and no one knew it. She then miss-carried during the infection part of the deal and that was what actually killed her. A blood clot from her uterus got into her lungs and killed her. They brought her back, but too late, she was brain dead.
When I walked out of the hospital at 2-3 am it was completely silent outside.... no movement on the streets.... it was a bit cold as it was Nov. 1st........ my boyfriends room mate and his dad drove up, put me in the car and asked how she was doing. I told they she was gone.... they didn't get it until i blurted out the word, 'died.' I was in shock but no one knew it. The next day i had to go tell my kid brother she was gone. Way too much for the little girl I actually was at the time. Yet I did it anyway.... I remember walking down the street the next day completely alone in the world... told myself, well you wanted this and now you've got it... it's just you now and so you'd better get it together and be the grown-up you've been wanting to be..... and so I did........ There's more nightmare to the story... like how my father and extended family behaved afterward and at her funeral, but that's just too much for here and it doesn't matter anyway cause i knew i was on my own that day. I was 16. 1-1/2 yrs later at 18 yrs old I took custody of my kid brother from the State of Ca. with my fathers help. Anything for him not to have to deal with raising us.
The story told because it was obviously complications from the back surgery which killed her. the docs weren't thorough enough to be sure she wasn't pregnant before they did the surgery. What a crap shoot it all was.... and can still be. My moms story is one of the worst, yet it still happens that these surgeries go bad one way or another, and we need to be so careful before we allow someone to cut on us especially our spines.
I have it all in my back at 26 when I was married and began to have my children again, I was in pain 24/7. At 32 yrs old after beeing treated off and on for flare-ups with PT and pain meds I was given my first MRI. The surgeon walked in with the films and asked me how old I was again... I told him 32.... he said he wanted to be sure because I had a regular 60 yr old's back.......
Stenosis, arthritis, degenerative disc disease, herniated and slipped discs, ruptured discs etc etc....... all at 32 yrs old. No more could the docs send me away acting as if it was all in my little, complaining, female brain.
I attempted more PT but always the wrong exercises and pain would get unbearable. I just lived with it and the flare-ups for years. But the flare-ups got closer and closer and longer in duration, until one day... after taking a desk job thinking that would lessen the wear on my back (wrong! answer... sitting all day was the worst job of everything I ever did... hard labor was better for me) 3 yrs into the office work I experienced a flare-up and it never went away. That was Aug. of 2003 and the chronic pain began. What a nightmare it's been. The pain is bad enough, but the way it has hurt my family relations, my ability to work or be like a normal person is... everything in my life is dictated by my level of severe pain.
My surgeon said no surgery... thank God. But I still struggle getting the correct PT and the correct for me program to work on all the aspects of my situation and my physical symptoms.
I still have the P.T.S.D. attacks on the table when they want to do the injection procedures. I need to get some psychotherapy help to get my and my moms issues separated. and hopefully that will all get easier.
I don't know what I'd do without all of you here to help me feel not so alone with this whole thing. I was going crazy when I found you all.
You are all angels sent by God just for me.... no one can tell me different!!
Well there's a little bit of the beginning of my story. I am tired it is late will try to write more later.
In Love, Light, truth, & Service,
Stubborn TerrieAnn "
Posted on 07/30/10, 05:27 am
deleted_user
Hello again Terrie - just wanted to say thanks for posting your story here too! TAke care. ~Sandy~
deleted_user
I'm speachless. Sorry sounds so ineffective. I can relate to dealing with an alocholic mother, mine was too. It's not fair to children. I thought I had it bad dealing with a physical abusive father, and to deal with all that at that age, it must be something that has left a scar, and it really touched my heart. I will keep ya in my prayers and if you ever need anything let me know.
deleted_user
I don not understand why life has to be so hard! no one should have all of that pain!
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