LETS TALK CHRONIC PAIN

Pain such a subjective and personal subject. Most people are relatively healthy, have occasional headaches, may have stubbed their toe, have a tooth ache, get sore muscles by over doing it from time to time, but really nothing that changes your life to any extent other than slow down a bit till it subsides, but in most cases it does subside. I know ,that USED to be me.
Now lets talk Chronic Pain, this pain never ever goes away although the pain level may go up and down , it is ALWAYS there and hangs around like a dark gray stormy cloud raining on your life day in and day out and in most cases changes your life considerably. If you have a chronic illness or have chronic pain your life that you had is only but a memory. The life we have now is in some cases, waking night mares.

When I tell some one I have arthritis, people shrug their shoulders as if to say, hey everyone gets that with age, it is nothing.  But it is something, your bones are grinding into itself, pinching nerves, inflaming muscles, making movement and mobility a major problem. Lets say you get a pain in one small little joint , lets say a finger or a thumb, it is amazing how it affects your body as a whole. Think back when you got a paper cut, the initial pain was terrible and made you think about that poor finger with a little bitty cut on it, but it hurt ,damn it ! That is not the pain I am writing about here.
 Think back when you came down with the flu, lets say it was a bad one and your sick in bed or on the couch for a week, your body aches all over , your tired, your nauseated and you just want  to sleep until it goes away,and you do sleep all the time.  Well , welcome to my world, and many like me with chronic pain, only in most of us with chronic pain  that flu like feeling NEVER goes away, sleep does not come as often as it should, most of us are lucky to get 2 or 5 hours sleep at a time and many of us have less than that. Pain and movement causes so much discomfort, finding a comfortable position to sleep in is troublesome,if your lucky enough to find it, because you know that when you finally find that spot, you will PAY FOR IT IN THE MORNING , because your body did not move much while you slept and so upon waking you are unable to move without a lot of pain and discomfort and even when you want to move your body makes it so hard to do so. Pain is something that alienates you from your family, friends and the world for that matter, because for many of us you can not see the pain or illness, you can not see anything on ones body that would cause this kind of pain, invisible. People can't see your pain, they only can see your reaction but not the cause of the pain in most cases. People can not understand why you are not up and about like you use to be, most of the time they think you are making a big to do about nothing, that my friends is sometimes worse than the pain we experience. Not to have love ones understand,or even believe you,hell trying to get your Doctor on your side is a miracle in itself. I thankfully have family and friends that do believe me and understand and are on my side, thank God, but many of us who are in Chronic pain are alone in that pain, and that is a damn shame on all their famiy and friends who do this to them.
 In my case I have 3 different types of pain maybe more, and one pain medication does not work for all types. Vicodin does nothing for head aches, in fact may give you one, for me it may relieve pain for a few hours but only to knock it down a couple of notches on the pain scale, BUT lately any Opiates cause severe nausea and dizziness and not worth a hour or two of lowering the pain a notch or two, but any reduction is a blessing, Ibuprofen/Advil may work on 'normal' headaches, and mild pain of arthritis or sore muscles, but does nothing for moderate and severe arthritis pain and forget relieving nerve pain which in most cases nothing works for it .  Arthritis for some may be just a shoulder, or an elbow, may be your fingers, maybe the location is just one knee, or various spots on one's back, but for the most part just one or maybe 2 locations on your body you could say has a 'bit of arthritis ' in it. That can be tolerable at least in the early and mild stages of it, something an Advil or two will help, maybe an ice pack or heating pad now and again  and off you go, now consider most of your major joints affected with 'arthritis' , in my case , both knees, my left hip, both shoulders, my neck, upper, mid and lower back, these hurt 24/7 but at some times all my fingers get affected, sometimes my jaw, sometimes, my ankles and feet, my toes, they get on the band wagon every once in a while as if to say 'don't forget us'. And this chronic pain started in my early 40's this is not 'just' an old person's disease.  I am thankful most days I have maybe 2 areas that are having more pain that the other areas,say level 6-8, although the other areas are just turned down lower, what I call back ground noise at a level 3-4 pain, that is after any pain medication I have taken.  But for those days we with chronic pain call FLARES, all your achy normal spots get a fire in them and all areas reach crisis mode with pain levels 7-9 and this is after pain medication mind you. Thankfully those days are not constant and those days are not as often, but they happen sometimes on a weekly basis. Sometimes it is just a few of your joints in crisis mode, and for those flares your medication takes the edge off, but when the flares happen to all your troubled spots, then God help us on those days.
I have,so the doctor says Osteoarthritis in most of my joints, . HERE which is why I am now in a wheel chair , I am able to stand for a minute or two and take a number of steps but then I am unable to move my hip or leg to go any further.
I also have: PMR  HERE , which is the most insufferable pain I have yet to deal with, I have it in both my upper arms not including the arthritis in both shoulders. The pain will totally mess you up, and make you so dependent on others and unable to even move your upper arms for anything , pain level for this untreated is 8-9. Thank God for Prednisone which knocks its down a whole lot but then I have to contend with its major side effects.But I and most sufferers of PMR disagree with the so called Specialists on this disease, it effects even young adults, it does not go away , it only goes into remission if you are lucky and may come back many times after remission.
I also have:Peripheral Neuropathy  which cause carpel tunnel and shooting pain and numbness and needle burning feelings in arms and legs. HERE
I also have Scoliosis of lower lumbar HERE  caused by the results from my Legg Calve Perthes disease I had as a child,HERE that cause my left leg to be shorter causing my spine to twist which in turn causes my sciatica HERE.
Then we have my neck and spine that has bulging discs and Degenerative disc disease with bone spurs.HERE  Caused by all the above and working hard as a CNA lifting adults that in most cases were too heavy to lift.
I am so thankful that I have not had any surgeries on my poor body because of all this, but it is in my future. Many like me, have already had many surgeries, and in some cases only made it worse, and some are a lot better from the ordeal.
This is all to explain that when it comes to pain and chronic pain I know what I am talking about but wish I didn't. Most of us do not seek pity, just understanding and acknowledgement. I exist as do the millions that suffer chronic pain. If you know someone who suffers, be understanding and don't add more weight to their already burdened  body and mind. Chronic pain for the most part, and for most of us cause extreme fatigue because it wears you out to be in constant pain and we suffer from various stages of depression and grief for the life we once had. Be loving and supportive to those who have chronic illness and pain, don't add to our already burdened life.
Blessed be.

 Below is a handy pain level assessment guide that I use: