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...
Any day spent at the VA is a long day. Though is it only about 35 or 40 miles away, we have to drive though downtown Seattle to get there. What that means is on a great day, it takes just under an hour. I have had days that it has taken me four hours to get there. today was reasonable and it only took an hour and a quarter.
The nice thing about the Seattle VA is that it is free valet parking. The bad news is that they are building a new parking garage and valet parking is now on the far side of a huge hospital complex. We dropped off the SUV and I because I wrenched my shoulder this morning, I could not use my walker. As we started the long trek, the valet golf cart pulled up and offered us a ride - hey why not? Oh such a bad idea. Me, Hubby, and Misha did not fit and it was so jerky!!!! I would have been much better off to have just walked the 1/4 mile or so.
We finally get there and Misha curled up on my feet - a sure sign that I was over my pain limit. Twenty minutes into the wait, my back went into spasms bad enough that I doubled over, unable to respond to hubbies questions of if I was alright. A couple minutes in I managed to wave him off from doing anything and just let me ride it out... which was almost a full ten minutes of fighting for every shallow breath.
When I could sit up and explain to him what was going on, my hands we shaking bad enough the receptionist thought I was having a seizure.Hubby popped a hydrocodone into my mouth and held liquid so I could swallow it. The meds had worked into my system by the time we went back to see the doc and psych doc - but I was still shaking badly, and did through the hour appointment.
An hour of talking to the two doctors and what is the outcome? Sigh. Another referral for a sleep study - which I did not do the last time because they required me to stay without hubby there for a 12 hour test - my young dog can't hold her bladder for 12 hours, so I would have to be without her also - which means I would have made it maybe an hour at best before totally flipping out in panic attacks. The doc is going to specify that they have to work with me for a shorter test or let me do the test at home.
Because my Psych Doc just retired (I got the letter saying I would need to get a new Psych Doc ASAP on Monday), nothing can be done about the possible lethal combination of my tranquilizers for my panic attacks and the hydrocodone. Tomorrow I have to go get my acupuncture (YEAH!!!) so I will do it then.
I had to go take a drug test today - make sure I am not taking anything I am not supposed to - which I'm not. And nothing else is going to be done until sometime next month...
No long lasting meds until they have a reply about sleep apnea. As I am planning to move out of state in two or three months, it means we are going to get nowhere.
And, just to add insult to injury, I am pretty sure that sharp stabbing pain in my side means that the muscle spasms have broken a rib, again. That hasn't happened it almost a year. Sigh.
Yadlim and my Misha (two more days and I am DONE with my degree!!!)
The nice thing about the Seattle VA is that it is free valet parking. The bad news is that they are building a new parking garage and valet parking is now on the far side of a huge hospital complex. We dropped off the SUV and I because I wrenched my shoulder this morning, I could not use my walker. As we started the long trek, the valet golf cart pulled up and offered us a ride - hey why not? Oh such a bad idea. Me, Hubby, and Misha did not fit and it was so jerky!!!! I would have been much better off to have just walked the 1/4 mile or so.
We finally get there and Misha curled up on my feet - a sure sign that I was over my pain limit. Twenty minutes into the wait, my back went into spasms bad enough that I doubled over, unable to respond to hubbies questions of if I was alright. A couple minutes in I managed to wave him off from doing anything and just let me ride it out... which was almost a full ten minutes of fighting for every shallow breath.
When I could sit up and explain to him what was going on, my hands we shaking bad enough the receptionist thought I was having a seizure.Hubby popped a hydrocodone into my mouth and held liquid so I could swallow it. The meds had worked into my system by the time we went back to see the doc and psych doc - but I was still shaking badly, and did through the hour appointment.
An hour of talking to the two doctors and what is the outcome? Sigh. Another referral for a sleep study - which I did not do the last time because they required me to stay without hubby there for a 12 hour test - my young dog can't hold her bladder for 12 hours, so I would have to be without her also - which means I would have made it maybe an hour at best before totally flipping out in panic attacks. The doc is going to specify that they have to work with me for a shorter test or let me do the test at home.
Because my Psych Doc just retired (I got the letter saying I would need to get a new Psych Doc ASAP on Monday), nothing can be done about the possible lethal combination of my tranquilizers for my panic attacks and the hydrocodone. Tomorrow I have to go get my acupuncture (YEAH!!!) so I will do it then.
I had to go take a drug test today - make sure I am not taking anything I am not supposed to - which I'm not. And nothing else is going to be done until sometime next month...
No long lasting meds until they have a reply about sleep apnea. As I am planning to move out of state in two or three months, it means we are going to get nowhere.
And, just to add insult to injury, I am pretty sure that sharp stabbing pain in my side means that the muscle spasms have broken a rib, again. That hasn't happened it almost a year. Sigh.
Yadlim and my Misha (two more days and I am DONE with my degree!!!)
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I know this is stupid, but after not being able to find a job after graduation for almost two years, I ended up just taking an online teaching job because I couldn't find anything in my field. I was trying to get out of teaching and I feel so devastated. I felt this crushing feeling when I signed the paperwork and when I was in the meetings. I know that sounds so dramatic but it is how I felt. It...
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Tomorrow is National Massachusetts Day!Have you ever lived in or visited Massachusetts? If so, tell us what's great about the Bay State!
I pray they can make an exception for your sleep study. I hope things get better for you in the near future.
Hugs and love
Xoxoxoxo
Mary Ellen
Healing hugs and prayers
Yadlim, I think your doctors are really trying to help you. Perhaps they are looking in the wrong places to determine what your medical issues are, but you can't fault them for trying. You are a very strong person. You have an amazingly positive attitude in the face of such extreme physical pain. I hope you get the answers you're looking for real soon. I'm sending over some healing hugs! I hope you are feeling better!
I have not done any research on the lethal combinations... I have been too busy... But I have been on a combination of Hydrocodone/clozepam/caraspodol for five years... hum. I stopped the caraspodol a few months ago and though it has not been replaced with anything that stops the muscle spasms, it is sort of nice not being on it. I do have a rare drink - like two or three a year.
Next week I meet my new Psych Doc and I am going to talk to him about coming off the clozapam and going back on ativan - which is a break through tranq instead of the long lasting clozapam.
Honestly - I am going to the Pain Clinic to show due diligence to my VA Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor that I am doing everything possible to get back into the work force. It is my Primary Care doc to gives me the pain meds - but they make suggestions that he says he HAS to follow. Ideally, they want to know if I have sleep apnea before making a suggestion as to a better longer lasting pain med combined with a breakthrough med.
BUT... None of these people have gotten it figured out that I plan to leave the state here soon and at this rate, I will be gone before they have actually suggested anything!
I am done, and tonight that is all I care about!!!
Yadlim and my Misha
I know the feeling about someone giving you a ride to save you walking and it turns out to hang on for dear life!
Why is your dr so into you having a sleep study???
The Pain Management docs are really stuck on this sleep test. I would guess that there has been someone who did not show any symptoms of sleep apnea, but when put on long acting meds did not wake up. That is the sort of thing that tweeks at military types. Hopefully they will just let me do the study at home. Hubby did his at home. He has severe sleep apnea so we are well used to the CPAP machine.
The only problem I have with sleeping is pain. I usually just hurt too much to sleep.
I do have breathing issues, but that is because of where my spine is crushed, right at the T6 - which is where the nerves for my diaphragm should be. So when I get a muscle spasm, the first thing that happens is my breathing stops.
Oh, and x-rays today are conclusive, I did break a rib on Tuesday from the muscle spasms.
Sigh - at least I now get to take a few days and just chill...
Yadlim who is feeling high on relief!!! and my Misha who is a big white rug
I wish someone could tell me where the stats are on a state by state basis on autopsy results of chronic pain patients and their primary and secondary cause of death.
By the way-don't step too hard on your big white rug :p