Frist off YAYA to Chasmyn!!!
who just delivered a healthy baby boy!!!!!! YAYAYAYAYAYAYA
Now on to my own issues... LOL after all that is really what this blog is for. I have learned as Julie from below said that most of the boards and forums for chronic pain are ..... well full self pitying crap. AND in all honesty having not a heck of a lot to do with the type of pain that is going on with me. I do not have a diagnosis as of yet, and although I may have something like fibromyalga that is something that I had before .... that is not what is acutely wrong right this minute. I have however learned one thing that has set my mind at ease, it is not unusual for people to make light of their pain problem when confronted with a doctor. That it is not at all unusual to talk yourself out of being as sick as you are moments before you walk in. That I am not alone that when the nurse says "and why is the doctor seeing you today?" to immediately feel attacked and defensive. AND I'm not alone when it comes to leaving the doctors office and your love ones say "well? why didn't you just do this" to feel overwhelmed and helpless. I find myself more and more angry of our health care system which seems as pointless as being angry at the IRS.
This will probably be more information then you want to know. But I need to talk about it so don't read if you don't like graphic details, it's ok not to, really!
So what is wrong? Ok I have pain in my gut and kidney area. 2 separate places. One that is about the middle of my scar area. It goes from not hurting much to hurting very badly. It hurts a lot to poop, not in the poop area, but in the gut. It feels like a cold hard bullet setting in there twisting and turning. I cannot stand to be touched or poked there.... which seems to make every doctor want to do exactly that. I often slouch in my chair at home almost balled up in cradle like position to try and relieve some of the pain.... that doesn't work very well. I have pain in my kidney area. This started when I had stones and they did the lithotropsy. They said it would go away, it didn't. It comes and goes. I could live with this one, it leaves me breathless but it is more like a contraction, painful but when it is gone it is gone. I think it is smallish stones that are not getting caught in there passing. But sometimes it sticks around for a bit and then I think it might be an appendix problem... but then it goes away so that is why I think it could be small stones. What I do know that I have is low blood sugar and low blood pressure. These are documented, and there isn't much to be done except for what I'm already doing about them which is watching what I eat and taking salt pills. I think they could be the symptoms of some other types of problems but I don't know, most of those are pretty rare and I don't have a family history that would make me think those are likely. My white blood cells are fine. My urine has calcium, sometimes. Everything else is rock steady. I am not anemic. I am scared. While talking this week to my hubby about the dream of our future, I had to put in "if I'm healthy enough"...... which also met "if I'm not so stoned off of pain medication by that time." because I don't know how long I can hold out. I'm already taking bendralye every single night...... yes I have allergy, but I could take less knock your sock off stuff and I choose to take the bendralye because I know it will take the edge off the pain too. I will be trying acupuncture next..... which some of you may know me well enough to know ... that I'm a western medicine kind of gal.... You won't hear me say much about that because I think it is better for you if you can believe in something to believe in it, but I don't. But ok, HMO says they will pay for it if the CT scan comes up with nothing, so off I go try it out. Hopefully my belief none-withstanding it will work. If it doesn't then....... well at the same time my doctor said she would sign a refreal for me to go the the Stanford Pain Clinc which is not very far at all from me, so if that is the case then I will do that to and let their team of doctors look me over. Someone will tell me what is wrong, I am not crazy.
Peace out.
Now on to my own issues... LOL after all that is really what this blog is for. I have learned as Julie from below said that most of the boards and forums for chronic pain are ..... well full self pitying crap. AND in all honesty having not a heck of a lot to do with the type of pain that is going on with me. I do not have a diagnosis as of yet, and although I may have something like fibromyalga that is something that I had before .... that is not what is acutely wrong right this minute. I have however learned one thing that has set my mind at ease, it is not unusual for people to make light of their pain problem when confronted with a doctor. That it is not at all unusual to talk yourself out of being as sick as you are moments before you walk in. That I am not alone that when the nurse says "and why is the doctor seeing you today?" to immediately feel attacked and defensive. AND I'm not alone when it comes to leaving the doctors office and your love ones say "well? why didn't you just do this" to feel overwhelmed and helpless. I find myself more and more angry of our health care system which seems as pointless as being angry at the IRS.
This will probably be more information then you want to know. But I need to talk about it so don't read if you don't like graphic details, it's ok not to, really!
So what is wrong? Ok I have pain in my gut and kidney area. 2 separate places. One that is about the middle of my scar area. It goes from not hurting much to hurting very badly. It hurts a lot to poop, not in the poop area, but in the gut. It feels like a cold hard bullet setting in there twisting and turning. I cannot stand to be touched or poked there.... which seems to make every doctor want to do exactly that. I often slouch in my chair at home almost balled up in cradle like position to try and relieve some of the pain.... that doesn't work very well. I have pain in my kidney area. This started when I had stones and they did the lithotropsy. They said it would go away, it didn't. It comes and goes. I could live with this one, it leaves me breathless but it is more like a contraction, painful but when it is gone it is gone. I think it is smallish stones that are not getting caught in there passing. But sometimes it sticks around for a bit and then I think it might be an appendix problem... but then it goes away so that is why I think it could be small stones. What I do know that I have is low blood sugar and low blood pressure. These are documented, and there isn't much to be done except for what I'm already doing about them which is watching what I eat and taking salt pills. I think they could be the symptoms of some other types of problems but I don't know, most of those are pretty rare and I don't have a family history that would make me think those are likely. My white blood cells are fine. My urine has calcium, sometimes. Everything else is rock steady. I am not anemic. I am scared. While talking this week to my hubby about the dream of our future, I had to put in "if I'm healthy enough"...... which also met "if I'm not so stoned off of pain medication by that time." because I don't know how long I can hold out. I'm already taking bendralye every single night...... yes I have allergy, but I could take less knock your sock off stuff and I choose to take the bendralye because I know it will take the edge off the pain too. I will be trying acupuncture next..... which some of you may know me well enough to know ... that I'm a western medicine kind of gal.... You won't hear me say much about that because I think it is better for you if you can believe in something to believe in it, but I don't. But ok, HMO says they will pay for it if the CT scan comes up with nothing, so off I go try it out. Hopefully my belief none-withstanding it will work. If it doesn't then....... well at the same time my doctor said she would sign a refreal for me to go the the Stanford Pain Clinc which is not very far at all from me, so if that is the case then I will do that to and let their team of doctors look me over. Someone will tell me what is wrong, I am not crazy.
Peace out.
posted by achromic at 3:59 PM
3 Comments:
I have similiar problems with pain in my back. No one can tell me what is wrong but it has hurt for 10 years. I hope they figure it out and get you better.
Achro, you and I can share a rubber room if it turns out we're just nuts (but I don't think we are). Pain is felt in the brain, so it has to be treated even if they find no "physical" reason for it.
But I can guarantee you will run into a number of quacks and others who will not respect you and your complaints. I found it very helpful to bring my husband with me to all physician appointments. He asked the questions I forgot to ask, remembered the answers I would forget, and to be absolutely truthful, the presence of another man in the room with the male doctors made them less condescending and patronizing toward me. In my experience there is still a great deal of gender-prejudice in the medical community. We women are more easily dismissed - do you feel it, too?
I have a suspicion about chronic pain that I think relates to kindling theory - and I admit I came up with it because of my own experience with pain - I think the misfiring signals "like" to visit places they have been before. It's like the body's attempt to resolve the trauma and dissipate the energy that is running wild, seeking escape. So we have "remembered" pain in areas that have been traumatized, like your kidneys. But we have to make the docs eliminate all possibility that the pain has a pathological source before we can blame the pain on misfiring neurons, so I'm awfully glad you are getting more imaging studies.
Hello, Michelle! I have also had back pain for many years. I read recently that more than 90% of back pain is psychological, and I wish a doctor had told me that. It doesn't make it "fake" pain, but it sure makes a difference in how we try to treat it.
Anyway, once I read this, I tried using 1/2 mg of Xanax, nothing else, and darn it, my back pain was relieved when I treated my emotional stress. The other pains hang around, but it's nice to get rid of that one screaming knife in my back.
I'm also hoping for better medical care for you, Achro, and for your back pain, Michelle. Thanks for letting me share my own pains here.
I, too, am a Western medicine kind of girl. I went into accupuncture a reluctant skeptic. But it works, baby! It has helped me with fibromyalgia when the meds weren't helping. depression - always. And most recently, when I had a pinched sciatic nerve. It has not regulated my cycle, but everything else has been surprisingly wonderful. I fly after a session.
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