Comments for A Journey Through Chronic Pain

Comment on What to do when things go wrong by surferjay

surferjay — Sun, 25 May 2008 06:32:29 +0000

At my old chiropractors office there was an excellent hippy massage therapist lady, I went to her for a year. Of course for me, this dandy homemedics electric massager works great, go figure.
Blue Cross denied me the botox injections, just recently. Dang, I need that brow lift also!

Oh, the official finding for me is moderate to severe degeneration of the L5-S1. Thats it. Not much for severe unrelenting pain. I must have read a dozen books by now in search of a cause. I even stole all my MRI/X-Rays to go over them myself while comparing them to illustrations of all the possible back disorders. i must have given myself 4 diagnoses by now. Of course they are all bogus. A guy can dream can’t he.

Funny thing, the Cross also denied me Lyrica, which is silly considering that I am taking gabapentin, and Lyrica is obviously going to soon render gabapentin obsolete due to it’s increased efficacy. Dam the FDA and their slow as snails trials for every particular possible use for a drug. We know it works! Just allow it!

“When is it time to call the doc and say, “Help!!””

Let’s try and call a family member and say “Help!” Quite often I find that to be more therauputic on many levels.:)

Comment on What to do when things go wrong by caustin1

caustin1 — Fri, 23 May 2008 05:01:10 +0000

OW!! Sounds like a huge deal!!! And not one that I care to embrace any time soon!! I guess I am lucky in one respect. I have “good” bone. Very solid, very strong. In fact when I had my total hip, the doc was complaining that my bone was so hard that it took way more time to do the surgery than normal. Go figure!! So if it does come to having back surgery at some point, I am hoping that fact will be in my favor! Give them something to work with!!
I do think that not having a diagnosis is tough. In the days following my first back injury in the late 70’s I had a diagnosis of “lumbar radiculopathy” hence, “back pain”. Very non-specific, huh?? Well, I had treatments from Osteopathic manipulation to accupuncture to try and relieve the pain, some of which worked better than others. In later years, the thing I found that worked the best is “therapeutic massage”. I found a man in NY who is fantastic!!Turned me every which way but loose, let me tell you!! And I would get good relief, although it would not last significant amounts of time. So I would suggest that for you, Surfer Jay! If you haven’t tried it. Find someone who has as much training as possible in therapeutic techniques.
Hang in there guys!! Better days are coming!!

Comment on What to do when things go wrong by caustin1

caustin1 — Thu, 22 May 2008 13:31:26 +0000

Thanks for the comment! And on some level it does make sense. In the past I had a dorsal column stimulator placed (the whole story is on my blog) and it was a totally disaster! But that was only to relieve pain. This operation would be to improve pathology. And the suggestion by one surgeon was for minimally invasive surgery, however, the second opinion revealed another wrinkle. The second doc stated that minimally invasive surgery may not be of much help. Since I have significant stenosis, as well as collapsed disks, the only way for surgery to be of much benefit might be with a spinal fusion. Well, screw that!! Unless it comes to a point where I can no longer function without it, I am not subjecting myself to that kind of trauma!! And the problem comes in that they may not know what could be beneficial until they open me up!!! What a shock, to go in for something simple and wind up with 4 or 5 fused vertebrae!!

I sometimes wish I had uncomplicated back issues, something that popping a few muscle relaxants and chillin’ would help. But you and I know it’s not that easy! Going through tons of injections proved largely fruitless for me.
So all I can say is “hang in there”! I was thinking this morning how amazing this whole world of blogging is. How we connect with people who we otherwise would never meet on any level. I need to spend more time reading and less time writing. I am sure there are many out there, like yourself, who have far more interesting lives than I do.

Take care!!

Comment on What to do when things go wrong by surferjay

surferjay — Thu, 22 May 2008 06:06:52 +0000

It would seem to me that if you had nerve impingement, then relieving that pressure against the nerve would help remedy some major problems, such as relieving the numbness. I don’t know your history with back surgeries, and of course I know very well how every individual’s case of back problems is quite different, but if I had a pinched nerve, I would go in there. Also, (full disclosure here) I have no significant findings other than pain, so I would love a diagnoses such as that. Have you considered dealing with the nerve impingement without messing with anything else, such as the bone spurs, in an effort to limit the trauma of too much surgery. A friend of mine had the bulge in his herniated disc removed orthoscopically, less invasive that way. Of course we know stories of people with pinched nerves and they have no symptoms, so who am I to tell you to put yourself through the torments of being sliced open.
My Doc recently suggested botox. Botox! I know it could help relax the muscles, but it’s still funny.

Comment on Perspective—-Revisited! by surferjay

surferjay — Fri, 16 May 2008 06:39:50 +0000

You have done a great job tackling this subject, so I am just going to add my most used responses to the question, “How do you feel?” I was going to self-analyze why I give the answers I do. But then it might spoil the absurdity of some of them, so here they are without a narrative. In order of most often used.
Fine.
Ehhhhh, I’m all right.
Ohhhhh, I don’t know.
Feel like crap.
No, no, I’m fine, really.
Unfortunately I’m still alive.
Pretty shitty.
Awful.
Sh!t.
F#$$#n dying over here.
It’s f#$$#n killing me.

Comment on Perspective—-Revisited! by Jon

Jon — Fri, 16 May 2008 03:46:26 +0000

Can’t speak for Grant, but I assume he feels pretty close to the same. We wouldn’t trade those years you raised us for anything either.

To the comment above, either you didn’t read it right or what you posted isn’t what you really meant to say. And if you think “he should have the responsibilities especially financially” you might want to rethink those gender roles you have in your head from 100 years ago.

Comment on Perspective! by Grant

Grant — Tue, 13 May 2008 08:07:52 +0000

We each have our own mechanisms for coping, but one thing I have come to realize, and was recently reinforced to me, is that it is not productive to dwell on the negative aspects of our lives.

You get out of life what you put into the world. If you face things with optimism and a generally positive outlook, things will be (seem) much easier than if you’re negative.

It would have been a healthier way to get out from under the mountain of shit I dug out of through an almost total denial of the world, feelings and self.

I’ve only recently truly learned this lesson, and I have a lot of trouble consistently applying it. But now I know what to shoot for and can continue to adjust myself to those ends.

Comment on Perspective! by Surfer Jay

Surfer Jay — Tue, 13 May 2008 06:51:16 +0000

You bring up a very important issue and make a valid point, that it is essential for us to be honest about our current state of suffering when asked. I fell into the cycle you describe. I would repeatedly say that I was fine. Of course my girlfriend knows the severity and consistency of my pain, so she did feel left out and lied to, like I was shutting her out. Her perception is of course different than my logic behind it. I want to try and trick her into believing I am doing relatively ok that day (yeah right), I don’t want her to worry about me, and/or I simply want to avoid talking about it as if that would actually allow me to avoid thinking about it. She has said that she would rather know how I felt, even if it is horrible.
It took me some time, but I eventually realized that it is damaging to our relationship. I had previously thought, (sometimes still do) that revealing my level of criplledness (pain) to her regularly would bring it to the forefront of her thoughts, and that would be damaging to our relationship. Oh how wrong I was. Communication and honesty is key.
I must admit, that I still occasionally hide the full extent of my pain. Usually while doing some activity where I don’t want her fun to be dampened by thinking about my pain. I make it a point to tell her the truth on a typical day though. When she walks in the door after work, and asks about it, I tell her, I didn’t always.

Comment on When does a blog become something else?? by Bean

Bean — Wed, 07 May 2008 09:25:28 +0000

Coming from a scattered family myself (I just met two of my dad’s cousins for the first time when Grant and I were home) I’ve taken the “outgoing” route and searching people out via the internet. Recently I found my dad’s cousin he hasn’t seen since he was possibly a teenager. We’ve started up a little email back-and-forth and now I have a “new family member” who has never met any of my generation and knows next to nil about us.

One of the best feelings, even if you don’t get a response is just putting out that line to see if anyone will grab it. It of course feels 10x’s better when you actually get a response.

Comment on That Little Voice Inside Your Head by Bean

Bean — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 11:22:32 +0000

Glad to know The Book Thief grabbed you too!! It really is an astounding book.

I was actually wondering if you would talk to my mom about her whole ordeal with her father. I’m not sure what you know about subdural hematomas and infections and recovery and all that, but I think an opinion from someone not at that hospital and who has a good medical knowledge base would be a wonderful help.