Hi all. I’m having a really “Bad Pain Day”, as my family and I have less-then-lovingly dubbed these awful days.
I can barely get out of bed, but today with ALan’s help I’ve managed to make it the 50ft. from my bed to the couch.
I watch TV or type emails or letters IF my hands will cooperate. I have to do something to keep my mind off the pain.
I think that if I focus too much on the pain, despair is surely to set in. Sometimes the depression can be as bad as the pain! I begin to focus on what my future could POSSIBLY be like… how much more hell can I take…is there a limit that our bodies and minds can take?
Unfortunately I resort to 100mgs. of morphine and a jack & coke. I know that is hell on my liver. But on days like this… that is the only way. I worry that the “gradual increases” the docs have made with my pain meds. over the past several years have brought me to the limit.
Sorry…my mind tends to run thru all the worst case scenerio’s on days like this.
I know it’s crazy, but somehow just by sharing this with someone lightens the load just a bit.
How do you cope?
Hello, I understand how bad your pain is and your frustration. There are many ways to help relieve the pain on those days as well as “normal pain days”. Do you see a pain Doctor, who specializes in pain. I had to see several pain doctors until I found the one who understood me. Do you belong to any support groups other then this one. If you go to http://www.ctpainfoundation.com that would be a start. A big help is trying to see a pain therapist, a phsychiatrist who specializes in people who suffer from pain. Another big help is learning how to meditate.
My name is Mano,I’ve been in chronic pain for eight years after a fall that injured my cervical spine. I lost three disks and I have spinal stenosis, arthritis, misaligned vertebrae, pinched nerves and now a huge bone spur. I am in constant pain. Lately I’ve been having extra bad days with severe spasms in my neck. The degeneration runs from T1 to C2. I’ve been on ms contin, percocet and other meds for over six years. Three of four surgeons said my neck is inoperable. I was swindled out of my lost wage benefit. I am lucky to have a good doctor. I have been going for office visits for over six years every four weeks. For the past six months, I’ve been getting about fourteen epidural steroid injections every six weeks with general anesthesia although I have had to have them without any anesthesia several times. That is unbearably painful. They don’t seem to be helping much anymore.
My pressing problem is that my doctor is not making any change in my treatment to keep up with my worsening condition and my work load is getting much worse. My medication no longer controls my pain and I have been having extreme muscle spasms and severe pain through my back and out my chest; it is like a heart attack.
This week I was in bad shape and my doctor would not answer my calls. I finally got the comp adjuster to authorize one ER visit. I was given a big shot of Toradol and another of Dilaudid along with Flexeril. I was told I need a new MRI. That treatment helped break the spasm but now I’m taking flexeril and I’m so sleepy I can’t focus.
I have been working although I would have been on 100% disability except for my lost wage benefit. Social Security would pay me if I was not working but my benefit would not even pay rent.
I am afraid that I will lose my job; I would become immediately bankrupt and be homeless in a month. I know there are stronger steps my doctor could take like have the bone spur removed, increase my meds, perhaps install a med pump and more, but he will not even discuss it.
I am very afraid that if I even disagree with him he will stop seeing me and I would be lost. I have no one to call when I get in trouble which is happening more often.
Can anyone suggest something I can do? Is there a doctor in Maryland that would take me as a patient with work comp and narcotic treatment that would step up my treatment as my condition degenerates?
Is there anywhere I can go when I get in trouble on extra bad days?
I have been an exemplary patient, I’ve never even been late one time to an appointment in over six years. I have kept my contract for narcotic meds without fail. I have lost the weight I was asked, I do the exercise and everything. It is my worsening condition and the increasingly difficult job I have that is causing the problem. I can’t not work in this economy. What can I do? Thanks for any help you can give. Thank you to everyone for your support.
Thanks,
Mano