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Long Term Chronic Pain

#1
Hey everyone. I am interested to hear what any sufferers of long term chronic pain may be able to share. I am a year in on my chronic pain's start, and am wondering if there are any strategies that work best or anything that was an ah-hah moment that they feel might help others like myself. Thanks.
 
#2
Hello @psmith222 , sorry to hear you are dealing with chronic pain, which I imagine must be very challenging as well as frustrating.

I have been fortunate in not having experienced this, but I know there are members here who have (and are), who I'm sure will able to offer some practical and helpful advice.

I do hope you are able to find some relief from your pain..
 

Soul flower

Well-Known Member
#3
I just replied this on another thread - but will share here.

I like to float - I have an 8' pop up pool and add epsom salt brine to help. I miss it all winter long!

The cold water seems to help with inflammation - though I have no proof of this and just the initial shock seems to distract my nervous system for a moment.
 
#6
Hello psmith222,

I suffer from chronic pain around 15 to 20 years now, I am 31. It is an unknown headache. Since morethan 2 years there is not even one minute without pain. Sometimes I am " lucky" and the pain is under 6 (on a scale from 1 to 10, 10 is the feeling of getting a knife in my eye again and again) , but that is very rare, even with Medication. As if that is not enough I really have now money issues as I can not work.
I would not still be in this world, without my fiance. Not husband, because it is just to exhausting to even plan a marriage. I am usually exhausted after going to the supermarket and we go Out rarely. Usually it is just to painful. Moreover, the pain rules everything. I have no fun in anything because the pain is just to Hard. I know it is hard to explain. I know I love him but I cannot feel it. I Do not feel anything except of pain.

Last year at christmas I pleaded my fiance that He will let me go. I know he is suffering as well. He gave me 365 days. He said if it does not go a tiny bit better than He allowes me to go in a hopefully less painfull World.
 
#9
How did I not spam this thread with acupuncture info already?

Well, better late than never :)

Seriously though, I do strongly recommend that folks with chronic pain try acupuncture as a treatment, particularly if you can find reasonably priced treatment, and if conventional medicine doesn't have much to offer you except addictive treatments like opioids, or treatments with serious side effects.

Here's a couple links (to pages on SF):

Chinese Herbal Medicine and Acupuncture, World's Second Largest Medical System

Self-Treatment and Miscellaneous

I included the self-treatment link because it has some acupressure self-massage info, though not specifically for pain. I think there's a book from Blue Poppy Press about acupressure self-massage, though it may only be available as an ebook or on loan from a library.
 

Astrid78

Spoonful of sugar will help the medicine go down
#10
Physical Therapy was a life saver for me, I learned many ways to aid in preventing and relieving pain. Over the years I have also added a streching routine along with the pt exercises I learned.
Hot showers and ice packs are always good.
How are you feeling today @psmith222?
 

1964dodge

Has a monkey as a friend
Safety & Support
SF Supporter
#11
How did I not spam this thread with acupuncture info already?

Well, better late than never :)

Seriously though, I do strongly recommend that folks with chronic pain try acupuncture as a treatment, particularly if you can find reasonably priced treatment, and if conventional medicine doesn't have much to offer you except addictive treatments like opioids, or treatments with serious side effects.

Here's a couple links (to pages on SF):

Chinese Herbal Medicine and Acupuncture, World's Second Largest Medical System

Self-Treatment and Miscellaneous

I included the self-treatment link because it has some acupressure self-massage info, though not specifically for pain. I think there's a book from Blue Poppy Press about acupressure self-massage, though it may only be available as an ebook or on loan from a library.
thank you mr may

mike....*hug*shake
 

1964dodge

Has a monkey as a friend
Safety & Support
SF Supporter
#12
Physical Therapy was a life saver for me, I learned many ways to aid in preventing and relieving pain. Over the years I have also added a streching routine along with the pt exercises I learned.
Hot showers and ice packs are always good.
How are you feeling today @psmith222?
hi i'm doing ok i guess. first i want to apologize to @Saint Rita for me not being totally truthful. a lot of times i sugar coat how i'm doing because i don't want to worry anyone or have people feel sorry for me. i promise not to do that on this thread because of the content. if anyone is worried about being triggered, please don't read any further and might want to avoid this thread.

that being said i hope if you guys know anyone suffering from chronic pain or acute pain please see if they want to come to this thread and share their experience with chronic pain for themself or close family or friends. chronic pain is so much worse than acute pain because it is usually there all day every day. a lot of times i compare something like chronic minor pain on a finger is worse than a broken leg. especially if the finger pain never goes away. even sleep doesn't get rid of the pain. most nights i usually wake around every hour or so because of pain so sleep isn't even a cure lol.

like i said i will be as honest as possible here and hopefully we can get other people that suffer any physical pain either acute or chronic , some people have a lower tolerance to pain and others the pain is too high. so even though i think chronic pain is worse we can help both kinds and maybe give them hope and a lot of compassion.

i'm going to invite one person to join us , she has had to deal with a lot of pain that turned chronic, so if she comes please welcome her. my next post is how i'm really doing i promise lol. again i'm sorry rita.


mike....*hug*shake



mike
 

1964dodge

Has a monkey as a friend
Safety & Support
SF Supporter
#13
@may71 i have not tried accupuncture because i'm old fashioned and don't want to stick needles even if they paid me, i turned down free acupuncture, and i know it's painless and safe i just can't stand needles. i do use something kind of similar sometimes, a tens unit that delivers shocks (mild to very painful) it's good because i have a good double unit which is 2 patches per side. when pain is really bad i use that.
Hello psmith222,

I suffer from chronic pain around 15 to 20 years now, I am 31. It is an unknown headache. Since morethan 2 years there is not even one minute without pain. Sometimes I am " lucky" and the pain is under 6 (on a scale from 1 to 10, 10 is the feeling of getting a knife in my eye again and again) , but that is very rare, even with Medication. As if that is not enough I really have now money issues as I can not work.
I would not still be in this world, without my fiance. Not husband, because it is just to exhausting to even plan a marriage. I am usually exhausted after going to the supermarket and we go Out rarely. Usually it is just to painful. Moreover, the pain rules everything. I have no fun in anything because the pain is just to Hard. I know it is hard to explain. I know I love him but I cannot feel it. I Do not feel anything except of pain.

Last year at christmas I pleaded my fiance that He will let me go. I know he is suffering as well. He gave me 365 days. He said if it does not go a tiny bit better than He allowes me to go in a hopefully less painfull World.
i have been suffering chronic pain for over twenty years so i understand how you feel. i have some serious health issues besides chronic pain and the last 2 years my wife has had some serious health issues but we love each other very much so we want to take care of each other.

i think hubby to be loves you as well as much as you love him. chronic illness/pain takes a lot away from us. i can't do close to what i used to do and have to plan my activities carefully. let's say you want to go the movies, plan on going on the weekend see if you can go friday, if pain is an issue then go saturday and sunday if you have to. you should find out what your issues will be through the next 20 or 30 years, then have a frank conversation with him. if he wants to be with you don't waste time and get married, then if he doesn't want to stay then release him. of course keep fighting to get better even a little

mike...*hug*shake
 

1964dodge

Has a monkey as a friend
Safety & Support
SF Supporter
#15
ok short( sorry long version lol ) version of the truth. as most people know i suffer pretty bad chronic pain, not as bad as some people but serious pain. when i'm normal i usually hang around 5 or 6 on the 10 scale with occassionally hitting 4 briefly for a few hours on a good day, every night without exception i hit a pain spike hittiing 7 to 9 and once in a while 10 for a few hours. when i hit 9 or 10 i can't sit, stand or lay down for more than 5 or 10 minuets at a time, it is pure hell. of course suicidal thoughts come but usually i can fight them easily , but it's getting harder to win lately.

as most people also know my wife was layed up for over a month, mostly in the hospitsl. i am disabled so it was hard for me to cope. the last 2 weekends i let my daughter and her hubby help out because i was very close to collapsing, my oldrst son helped a lot as well. this caused a lot of complications. as for the exhaustion i'm better maybe half way there.

the last couple of months my stomach is worse. besides cramps i diarhea at least 5 days a week and the last two weeks my stomack feels like it's burning a lot of the time. i may have to tell my doctor later. my copd seems worse and i should have seenmy lung doctor and a heart doctor but i've been putting it off because last year or so my docyor prescribed niro glycerin both patches and under the tongue tabs. but there is some hope. my blood glucose #s are coming down. i still need work but i'm down to 6.6 on the a1c . what i've been doing ( with doctors permission ) is everytime my glucose # is under 150 for a week i take 5 less units the next week. i started off at 50 units xoltophy and 50 units tresiba ( insulin pens ) so that was a 100 units a day and now i'm down to 50 units a day so good news to me

my pain the last couple of months has been pretty bad and i have had a hard time to control it. the past couple of weeks were worse. my spikes are hitting 9 or 10 most nights but usually only an hour or 2. first i have a plan well thought out 2 plans actually and a location but the possibility of me doing it while my wife is still alive is less than 1%. i have thought about it a lot more lately but i can usually fight those thoughts easily. some nights take longer like tonight i had to take a lorazepam to stop those thoghts

do i want to die? of course not i want to live. like most suicidal people want the pain to stop. be it physical or emotional pain is pain. i have too many reasons i can't commit suicide that i'm safe. the only way i can commit suicide before my wife passes is by accident. i take morphine and hydro-morphone for the pain as well as mmj salve and candy bars , they started to sell 1000 mg chocolate bars you can't eat all of it lol. i tried kratom for a month or two, i have a tens unit also which helps. the sad part is i don't have to suffer so much. when i was on larger doses of opioids before the cdc and dea got involved. back then i lived in the 2 or 3 range with spikes up to 5 or 6 but were rare because i was on a fentanyl patched which evened things out since it lasted 3 days so it helped avoid so many spikes. i am not doing great but i'm ok. as long as i don't lose hope completely or lose my wife i should stay safe. if you read this whole post thank you because you are a real hero.

mike...*hug*grouphug2*grouphug2*hug10*shake

p.s. i'm sorry for anyone suuffering physical pain and my inbox is always there if someone wants to talk privately.
 
#17
@may71 i have not tried accupuncture because i'm old fashioned and don't want to stick needles even if they paid me, i turned down free acupuncture, and i know it's painless and safe i just can't stand needles.
I know, I gave up trying to convince you a while ago. I wish there were something that could help.
 
#18
For any folks on this thread that are avoiding acupuncture because of an aversion to needles, there are some alternatives. One is acupressure massage. Another is to get press balls taped to acu-points. In some cases (not all), an acupuncturist might also do something like moxabustion for pain.

In principle, Chinese herbal medicine could help with pain conditions, though acupuncture is usually the primary treatment.

For those willing to try acupuncture but who are needle sensitive, an acupuncturist is usually willing to make some accommodations, like coordinating insertion with breathing. Japanese-style acupuncture is known to be especially patient-friendly, and uses very thin needles.

While acupuncture needles may be an inch and half long or so, they're really only inserted about a couple millimeters deep. There could be some (rare) exceptions, but I think a patient could simply insist on shallow insertion only.

Usually during a treatment, I'll either not feel the needles at all, or at worst a little bit of a pinch.
 

Bbear82

Well-Known Member
#19
Hello all. I also suffer from chronic pain. I had a surgery on my knee and it helped for about 3-4 months but then the pain came back worse than ever. I have pain constantly. I can sometimes keep it at about a five but by night I hit at least an eight even on bad days ten. It has gotten to the point that walking and driving are so painful I try to do as little as possible with driving.getting up and down is scary and painful it’s like my knee is going to give out on me. I also suffer from siatica. Sitting or standing for too long is unbearable but with the knee it makes standing almost unbearable as is. I am on pain meds but they only work to a point. Sometimes not at all. I also have a tens unit and it helps. I don’t talk about my pain because I don’t want to complain I know others have it far worse than I do. I have seen drs about my knee and one even went as far to tell me what do you expect and want me to do so I was finally able to get a second opinion. I need a knee replacement but before I can get it I need to lose some weight. I don’t know if it will help but the living with chronic pain is overwhelming and exhausting. Thanks for liso
 

1964dodge

Has a monkey as a friend
Safety & Support
SF Supporter
#20
I know, I gave up trying to convince you a while ago. I wish there were something that could help.
my pain management is dependant on multible things. i can most of the time maintain a 5 or 6 and should go down a bit more. so i can't complain becuse it could be worse. i am thinking of accupuncure after the first of the year. thinking lol

mike....*hug*shake
 

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