Chronic Pain

What is Chronic Pain?  It can be any type of pain that begins from a surgery, illness, past injury, autoimmune disorder or arthritis and becomes chronic pain if it lasts over six hours a day and longer than three months. It becomes part of your daily lifestyle that interferes with all aspects of your life. Presently 30 to 50 million people suffer from this debilitating problem.

Understanding Chronic Pain

Everyone in chronic pain must at some time accept what has happened to them and move forward.  Allowing yourself to grieve is important. Chronic pain is debilitating and there is a sense of loss along with ongoing pain. Many emotions such as anger and depression accompany chronic pain. 

EMDR through the support of a licensed Psychologist is effective for short term pain. Sometimes medication is the only relief if surgery is not an option.  Choosing the right Pain Specialist is essential because they can offer many different modalities to help control pain.  There are some new and helpful medications to relieve nerve pain on the market such as Lyrica and Lydoderm Patches.  Tens Units can also be very helpful as a devise that provides a frequency to the location of pain.  Specific applications for each person suffering from chronic pain are available to provide relief through drugs, physical therapy and bio-feedback. 

Ask your doctor what might work best for your needs. If you don’t find success the first time, keep trying.  What most people in chronic pain have in common is depression and a feeling of guilt. It is a fact that when a person has undergone prolonged stress, changes occur within the brain.  Antidepressant medication should be considered. A new medication called Cymbalta is very effective in helping depression and has shown to help nerve pain. Having a good relationship with your doctor is essential; it is up to you to communicate with your doctor effectively. There can be a high incidence of suicide because of the effects of chronic pain. Anyone in chronic pain is not weak if antidepressants are required. Taking control of what chronic pain does by how you think and feel is the first step in supporting yourself. 

·        Unless you have experienced chronic pain no one can understand the effects it has, and you can not expect them to.

·        If you lay down you will stay down.  It takes patience, perseverance, and a positive attitude.  It is important to try and continue a normal life style, even when it hurts.

·        Be in the moment, and live one day at a time.  Don’t overwhelm yourself thinking beyond the moment in each day.

·        One of the biggest problems with chronic pain is most people in chronic pain lose relationships with friends and family.  Being around someone in pain is not easy. Some of the reasons behind this theory are that others recognize their own mortality.  We live in such a busy lifestyle people seldom have the time or patience to help support people in chronic pain, it becomes depressing to some and others believe people in chronic pain are seeking attention.  

·        People in chronic pain, lose their sense of self, feel exhausted, suffer from low self esteem and lose their sense of humor.

·        People with chronic pain withdraw and it becomes hard for them to think or to be around others. 

·        Many people with chronic pain have difficulty getting out of bed and become prisoners to their own bedrooms.

·        An average day for most people in chronic pain consists of numerous doctor appointments, MRI’s, CT Scans and Bone, and Pet Scans in order to try and figure out what their problem might be. It is essential to find a good general practitioner (they are your quarterback) who will listen and guide you to specialists and or pain doctors.

·        People in chronic pain live a life that becomes a full-time job in order to try and feel good.

·        People in chronic pain may seem short and edgy and they don’t even know they are acting that way.

Second Injury

Second injury is when people around you are not living in your physical existence.  Things people say or do can cause enormous emotional pain.  After I broke my femur a second time, I really was having trouble and in pain.  The plate in my leg broke which broke my femur again and I had to endure another femur surgery within a nine month period; and I had just been diagnosed with breast cancer. There was one day I was having a difficult time and someone said “stop complaining at least you’re not Christopher Reeve.”  I know Christopher Reeve and his family must have had a terrible time, but it was about me and having someone understand my struggle during that moment.

Marriage and the Effects of Chronic Pain