PAIN, THE DISEASE

Check out this website.......it is very informative regarding chronic pain......  Pain, the Disease

Here are some excerpts I found interesting.....

Many pain patients have had doctors who pathologized them, told them their pain was unreal; I pathologized myself, hoping my pain was unreal -- or that it would become so if I treated it as such

 

Women tend to be either less aggressive in demanding pain treatment or to be aggressive in ways that are misinterpreted as hysteria. The longer pain goes untreated, the more desperate and crazed the patient becomes -- until those behaviors look like the problem

 

Naturally. Everyone who has chronic pain eventually develops anxiety and depression. Anxiety and depression are not merely cognitive responses to pain; they are physiologic consequences of it. Pain and depression share neural circuitry. The hormones that modulate a healthy brain, like serotonin and endorphins, are the same ones that modulate depression. Functional-imaging scans reveal similar disturbances in brain chemistry in both chronic pain and depression.

      "Chronic pain uses up serotonin like a car running out of gas," says Breitbart. "If the pain persists long enough, everybody runs out of gas." Thus, Acquadro's not treating Burke's pain aggressively because she was "tense" is like "not rescuing someone who is drowning because they're having a panic attack," according to Breitbart. Difficulty breathing triggers panic as reliably as pain causes depression. When serotonin is inhibited in laboratory animals, morphine ceases to have an analgesic effect on them. Medications that treat depression also treat pain. Depression or stressful events can in turn enhance pain. Since Sept. 11, pain clinics have been fuller. "If we started putting sugar in the water, it would affect the diabetics first -- pain patients respond to stress with increased pain," explains Scott Fishman, who also trained as a psychiatrist. But to make stress reduction a primary strategy for pain treatment is trying to repaint the walls of a crumbling house.

 

 

I'm still feeling horrible.  I had an appointment with my rheumatologist today.  And, try as I might I could not explain what my pain was like.  Aside from the usual pain I experience......... joint, muscle, etc.  I couldn't make him understand what was going on with me. 

 

The bouts of costocondrits have been getting worse.  And, each time the pain is more intense than before.  His only answer to me was that I had to live with this.  There was nothing he could give me to help.  I am already taking 400 mg of Celebrex and Percocette.  I tried to explainto him that when this pain come on..... it comes on like a piercing, sharp, agnoizing pain.  I don't believe that I have a warning if I did I believe that any one of the narcotic pain meds I have at home might help if I took a pill at the onset.  But once that pain has started it is just excruiating.

 

I also tried to explain my right hip/leg pain to him.  Again, he didn't understand.  He moved my leg up, down, sideways.  And, all he said was that he suspected that it was a pinched nerve in my spine.  But, again there wasn't anything that could be done. Even though I reminded him about the hematoma on the base of my spine and the condition of my spine with all the herniated and buldging discs.  If I were someone else a shot in the spine might help but because I am on blood thinners that is out of the question.  He said he is worried about paralysis.  So once again I am left without any options. 

 

I consider myself an intelligent woman.  But, I just can't get it right when I see him.  I lose all my senses.  I do feel very comfortable with him.  And, I believe he is a wonderful physician.  I don't know why I cannot get him to understand my pain.  I simply do not accept that nothing can be done.

 

As far as my hip/leg pain I will call my PCP for a referral for an X-ray and MRI.   I merely cannot go on with this pain.  It gets worse when I sit a certain way, if I move it a certain way and most of all when I am laying down trying to go to sleep at night. 

 

This is the reason that I am up at 4:30 am. I am sure that by tomorow morning I will have the headache from hell from lack of sleep.  It's just a vicious circle.  Like a roller coaster ride that I cannot get off of.  One thing going wrong with my body and it flares up others.

 

Well, one good thing.... I took a Echo Stress test today.  It was a chemical stress test where they start an IV and add a Dobutamine drip into the IV to increase your heart rate.  Of course, mine didn't go up so they had to inject me with something else two more times to get it up.  The good news is that my heart is fine.  The thing is that still we have no explanation as to why I get so out of breath with the littlest exertion.  My Lung Function Test wasn't that great but they are taking a wait and see attitude.  The tech that did the test said my lung capacity or something like that was within abnormal levels.  My rheumi said let's wait and see.

 

Once again, no answers.  I am just a happy camper....... No wonder I am depressed.  I just am given a prescription.

 

 

Here is a log that I found somewhere on the web.  It looks like a good thing to start keeping up with......

 

 

I started to write down information about my Activities of Daily Living.  It goes something like this......

 

Sleeping - I'm always tired as pain awakens me several times a night. I used to sleep about seven hours a night and then function in a 16-hour day. Now I sleep two to three hours at a time.

Grooming/Hygiene -. Some days I don't bother to shower.  Because it is just too much for me to do.  I lose my breath or the pain is just too much or I am afraid I will pass out so I wait until someone is home.

Food/Meals - I used to cook meals for my family, in addition to working full time. Now if I cook for my family it takes all of my family it takes all of my energy and most days it is too much for me. I buy prepared foods at the grocery deli. It's really painful to stand and cut up and prepare food. I use a chair in the kitchen but even that is a lot of up and down. 

House Cleaning - I've always had an immaculate house but now I'm literally too embarrassed to have people come over. If I push the vacuum I have incredible pain in my body that requires extra narcotic pain medication.  I cannot even manage to clean one room now without suffering.

Entertainment – I used to be such an active person.  Now I'm just too tired and in too much pain to do much of anything. I walk so slow that I can't do the processional and recessional with the choir. I loved being with friends and my husband. Now I just can’t do it.

Getting Out/Driving – Driving is just out of the question for me now.  Because I have periods of time when I get confused and disoriented and I get lost.  Getting out of my house is only done if someone else is with me.  Mostly, I only go out if it’s to a doctor’s appointment of something like that.  I try to go to social events but only if I am feeling okay that day.  But that means that I need to medicate myself with narcotic pain meds.  And, when that happens I am “out of it”, depleted and just unable to function.

 

 

Like I keep saying I am just trying to get a handle on how to live with "Chronic Pain."