Sounds sucky, rohrer. I KNOW you are really suffering.
I was glancing around this pain management site I linked before, and got a surprising amount out of reading some of the articles about managing chronic pain. More than the articles themselves, I was helped reading long commentaries at the ends, from patients suffering from intractable chronic pain - how they cope. It is heart-breaking to read some of their stories: absolutely to the point and with details of suffering that blew my mind.
The articles/commentaries about opiate use and especially problems associated with it (for non-cancer patients) were informative as well as touching. One wonders how some people stand pain which clearly surpasses my own experience and understanding (and I speak as someone who spent most of the weekend in bed reading - erm, Harry Potter, to get my mind off it). Indeed, some wrote in frankly how hard it is to fight the urge to just throw in the towel on bad days. There are lives of unrelieved pain, stood with quiet courage in the shadows of life as most know it - experiences that others never have to think about.
The point is repeatedly made, in fact, about how hard ( if not impossible), it is, to get "non-pain-patients" to understand the life experience of such patients. That there are two completely separate worlds - and the PAIN world is unimaginable to the NON-PAIN world.
Opiate medication, even "hyperalgesia" or hyper-opiate medicatioo. stood out as a life saver for many. Its ability to give sufferers the ability to hang on and maintain some quality of life and relationships, was striking. Also, the very real health dangers of suffering unrelieved chronic pain (among much else): immuno-suppression, heart attacks, High BP, depression. This is especially when prescribed with great expertise and sensitivity (for example. rotating opiates).
I'm sure there are other sites online where people in severe chronic pain support each other too. The management of chronic pain really is a special black hole in modern medicine. However, we can and should be grateful for the more enlightened attitude to opiate medication today compared to what existed even a few decades ago in this country.
It's worth remembering too (as I did reading that site) that many people in excruciating pain from problems like ours, do NOT even have the luxury of considering surgery because of their overall condition. We're very lucky in that regard. It means that at every point, in a sense, we're deciding to take pain medication (if we do) instead of opting for surgery. This reduces our pain in a way - at least, I feel that. It's very different to be locked into a tortured body KNOWING there's not even an imagined way out!
BTW I learned that some people have a genetic idiosyncrasy which makes them require much higher opiate dosages than normal, to get any relief at all. One such patient reported having had minor surgery without being knocked out because of it. It would have killed her to have the level of sedation accompanying the needed level of analgesia. She said her doctor (and she) were very worried about what she would do if and when she should need heart surgery or were in a car crash.
(I worry about car crashes too - as we all must - more than average, that is. Her concern is different, though).
http://updates.pain-topics.org/2009/...c-pain-is.html
Check out the links in the right hand column.
I was glancing around this pain management site I linked before, and got a surprising amount out of reading some of the articles about managing chronic pain. More than the articles themselves, I was helped reading long commentaries at the ends, from patients suffering from intractable chronic pain - how they cope. It is heart-breaking to read some of their stories: absolutely to the point and with details of suffering that blew my mind.
The articles/commentaries about opiate use and especially problems associated with it (for non-cancer patients) were informative as well as touching. One wonders how some people stand pain which clearly surpasses my own experience and understanding (and I speak as someone who spent most of the weekend in bed reading - erm, Harry Potter, to get my mind off it). Indeed, some wrote in frankly how hard it is to fight the urge to just throw in the towel on bad days. There are lives of unrelieved pain, stood with quiet courage in the shadows of life as most know it - experiences that others never have to think about.
The point is repeatedly made, in fact, about how hard ( if not impossible), it is, to get "non-pain-patients" to understand the life experience of such patients. That there are two completely separate worlds - and the PAIN world is unimaginable to the NON-PAIN world.
Opiate medication, even "hyperalgesia" or hyper-opiate medicatioo. stood out as a life saver for many. Its ability to give sufferers the ability to hang on and maintain some quality of life and relationships, was striking. Also, the very real health dangers of suffering unrelieved chronic pain (among much else): immuno-suppression, heart attacks, High BP, depression. This is especially when prescribed with great expertise and sensitivity (for example. rotating opiates).
I'm sure there are other sites online where people in severe chronic pain support each other too. The management of chronic pain really is a special black hole in modern medicine. However, we can and should be grateful for the more enlightened attitude to opiate medication today compared to what existed even a few decades ago in this country.
It's worth remembering too (as I did reading that site) that many people in excruciating pain from problems like ours, do NOT even have the luxury of considering surgery because of their overall condition. We're very lucky in that regard. It means that at every point, in a sense, we're deciding to take pain medication (if we do) instead of opting for surgery. This reduces our pain in a way - at least, I feel that. It's very different to be locked into a tortured body KNOWING there's not even an imagined way out!
BTW I learned that some people have a genetic idiosyncrasy which makes them require much higher opiate dosages than normal, to get any relief at all. One such patient reported having had minor surgery without being knocked out because of it. It would have killed her to have the level of sedation accompanying the needed level of analgesia. She said her doctor (and she) were very worried about what she would do if and when she should need heart surgery or were in a car crash.
(I worry about car crashes too - as we all must - more than average, that is. Her concern is different, though).
http://updates.pain-topics.org/2009/...c-pain-is.html
Check out the links in the right hand column.
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