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  • From: "Lynda" <lurine AT com-pair.net>
  • To: <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Homestead] Speaking of Pain management
  • Date: Fri, 24 Apr 2009 12:06:12 -0800

Son #3 is going to have to figure something out for chronic pain. He is the one who gave me every gray hair I have! Hyper-active (not ADD, just always going, going, going) from the age of 9 months (when he learned to walk) on. And an accident, not waiting to happen but happening. 22 stitches in the arch of his foot at age 5 (glass buried at the base of a slide), concussion and whip lash age 6 (playing hockey), broken pinkie finger age 7 (playing football), back injury (speared in back by another player, Pop Warner football) age 8, 9 stitches to close up his ring finger (another kid cutting firewood with a little hatchet) age 9. Plus a hip pointer, groin pulls, hamstring injuries and blew out both knees playing soccer and basketball. Two more back injuries playing football. Cracked both knees and one elbow when he was run off the road while roller blading. Oh, did I mention he almost lost his leg due to an infection that got into the bone when he ran into a bent up license plate (his shin). And about another dozen injuries. All before he was 20.

He has chronic all over the body pain. He's working at trying to figure something out to alievate it. He can't sleep. Occasionally, he gets a full nights sleep but most of the time he doesn't. By the end of the day he's stiff and he wakes up so stiff someone has to help him get out of bed.

I told him that he needs to do something because he works all day but you need to get some sleep some time or another or he's going to end up causing himself more injury working half-asleep.

So, he heads off to see a doctor. Takes in his list and unfortunately he gets the new breed of "doctor," an FNP (Family Nurse Practioner). She never so much as hints she might like to look at his back (I'm no doctor and don't play one of television either <g>) but I can see the wanky discs in his back and the knotted muscles. She doesn't do any of the other stuff the orthos usually do (toe stand, heel stand, muscle reflex, finger grip, needle wheel, etc., etc., etc.). She isn't interested in hearing that he's been taking some Ibuprophen I had with no results. She isn't interested in getting his prior medical records.

Her answer is "we'll test your thyroid." Huh? And when he asks about *doing* something about pain (thinking PT, chiro, TENS, ultrasound, pain management clinics, etc.), she says, "oh, you'll get YOUR OWN [emphasis was her's] ibuprophen." Ah, like because the prescription is in his name it will work better?

I am really disgusted with the medical profession in general and specifically medical care in "poor" communities!

Lynda
"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored." Aldous Huxley
----- Original Message ----- From: "EarthNSky" <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>


I saw my rheumatologist yesterday-regular visit. I've been having more
flares recently, mostly in my feet, with sore, tender, growing nodules
at my metacarpophalangeal joints of my forefingers on both hands. In
the last 6 months, I've also noticed an increase in my OA
symptoms...left knee, right hip, both shoulders, cervical and lumbar
spine, etc. I should own stock in BenGay and Capsaicin creams! It is a
good thing that I like the smell of menthol!
I was diagnosed with OA at the same time as RA, but for the most part, I
only have OA problems if I overdo it, or if the weather stays nasty. A
gazillion others have the same issues so I know I am not alone. Today,
my doc gave me a referral to a foot surgeon and lidocaine patches for
localized pain. I cut one down and placed it on my bunionette (a
bunionette is on the outside edge of the foot by the pinkie toe-it has
nothing to do with size-just bunionettes deform the pinkie toe and
bunions deform the great toe, pushing both towards the center of the
foot.) I have both like the image shown and the bunion looks worse than
the bunionette, but the bunionette causes me the most pain. It is not
an RA type pain, more like tendinitis, you know, a burning, tennis
elbow/carpal tunnel type of pain. So I put a patch on my foot at about
4:30 in the afternoon. I removed it at midnight before taking a shower.
You can leave them on for 12 hours-12 on 12 off. For the almost 8
hours I wore the patch, I did not have even one pain in my foot.
However, the pain re-emerged within 10 minutes of taking off the patch.
I am hopeful that it continues to work to take the edge off as that
will enable me to exercise more. Sometimes I skip the bike ride and the
fence/mailbox walk simply because I can't deal with more pain. Today
was such a day. With relief from the patch, I took a nap instead. If I
can exercise more, especially more regularly,(everyday instead of 2 or 3
days a week) I can drop even more weight and meet my goal of losing 50
pounds, which will of course also take a load off my skeletal system and
joints. According to the doc, I've lost 11 pounds in 3 months just by
drinking more water, exercising a little, drinking far fewer cokes, and
substituting unsaturated fats from plants for the saturated animal fats
when I can. I haven't gone overboard or anything, I'm still a major
carnivore, but I'm trying to make healthier choices and eat more veggies
and such.
I thought I would mention these patches in case others might benefit. I
was told that I could use them on any part of my body(back, shoulder,
knee, arm, ribs, etc.) I wish I had had something like this back when I
suffered from CTS daily. Of course it does nothing to stop the cause of
the pain-other meds do that, but it surely will increase functionality,
and give me a bigger buffer on pain and my mood. When you deal with
chronic pain, you become less tolerant of things and you loose your
emotional buffer. Anyway, ask your doctor about these things. They were
originally approved for the pain of shingles, I think.

I'd like to know how some of you manage chronic pain. Do you live with
a bucket of ice, pay for acupuncture, smoke dope, drink vodka??? How do
you get to sleep when you have mild or moderate pain? Has anyone tried
biofeedback? Hypnosis?


--
"The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public
debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered
and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed
lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of
living on public assistance."

--Cicero, 55 BC
http://erthnsky.blogspot.com/
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