Why You Should Listen to Your Pain

It is taking me some time to collect my thoughts right now because I am angry and sad. If this is the first blog post of mine you are reading, in other posts I have gone over the on going daily struggle with just living with Chronic Pain. We just don't have that to deal with, we have to deal with a heck of a lot more BS that isn't fair or our fault.

First we live with a stigma, Legal Drug Addiction! I have heard it more times than I can count. Next, Doctors do not want to take us serious because we are on narcotics. We have issues even finding a pain doctor now that will even treat with medications for several reasons. One is the amount of law suits for a variety of reasons which isn't worth going in to, Two because Insurance has made payment and treatment almost impossible because "They are helping to fight the Opioid Crisis", Third if you find one many won't even take insurance because of this headache. Fourth the State and Federal Guidelines are so full of red tape that Doctors say to hell with it, not worth any of this. We literally jump through hoops to find, get accepted, and remain a patient. Then we have issues with Pharmacies not wanting to fill the meds because they too are fighting this crisis. If you finally find one, it comes with stipulations that they must fill a nonnarcotic with it. This is even if they have these meds in stock because coincidently we have had an ongoing shortage.

Now that I have caught you up, I also have been preaching how important it is to know changes in your pain. New location, increased intensity, type of pain (deeper or radiating), becoming harder to get to a tolerated level? Knowing your body is so important because pain is NOT normal. When you have a chronic disease or even injury that causes pain it's difficult to know when to get concerned. The reason I am going into all of this is because I want to share a story with you.

Searching on Social Media for others going through the same difficulties that I have been was my initial step hoping to find direction through advice. I hunted and followed everyone I could find willing to talk about their experiences. In one of this groups I ran across a person who was dealing with chronic pain from a work related injury. He had several surgeries with a lot of metal put in down almost the entire spine. While trying to adjust to living with pain and now being disabled, he started trying to focus on others by helping with whatever he could to make life easier. Later when his condition started to deteriorate he became a really good listener to many, somewhat of a free therapist. Few years living this way and trying to remain upbeat, trying not to cause family/friends any issues went by when he noticed a difference in his pain. It felt a little different from what he was use to. He blew it off making excuses for a while hoping it was a temporary thing. After a while, he finally decided to speak with his Doctor which with exam didn't really show anything significant. Blood work was normal, urine ok, no signs of any abnormalities so the Dr just said he was probably setting up arthritis. He had not been diagnosed with this before and was told that this would probably happen. He was told to take OTC meds since he was already on a muscle

relaxer and a pain pill.

A few months passed and the pain was getting worse with nothing working from meds, heat/ice, rest, increased movement, or even OTC patches. He was having sleep issues now and found himself pacing a lot trying to get comfortable. Again he return to his Dr who suggested that maybe he had just grown tolerant of his prescription meds and suggested an increase. For a month this guy followed the directions and this did help a little at first but my his next month's visit was still pretty bad. This was when the Dr decided to order CT Scan which then was followed with blood tests then a PET Scan. Remember NO OTHER SYMPTOMS besides the increase in pain. By his next visit it was revealed that he had stage 4 bone cancer in his spine and hips. He was too far advanced for treatment to actually work. He left the visit with an order to start Hospice. He has weeks now to live.

I just wonder if he had not been a chronic patient by injury/pain if the Doctor would have moved quicker to do testing? He would he not be so quick to blow him off? Who knows but I can't count the times when seeing a new specialist that they didn't make a deal about me being on opioids questioning the need, alternative treatments, etc. It's like I have to defend being treated by a Pain Specialist. It seems like options for us are getting smaller and more difficult and I do not seem to be making any headway to bring attention to this problem. Now I get to worry if this going to happen to me. My pain is getting worse over time, I do have abnormal labs but still waiting a diagnosis. Unfortunately I am on the treadmill of long wait times between visits. I urge you to please whether you have chronic or just new to acute pain to PAY ATTENTION. Take notes of how often, pain level, type of pain, describe your pain to the best of your ability, location, and if/how/or you find comfort or relief. This info may be what saves your life.