Chronic Pain members - Welcome, please introduce yourself

The sad truth of my situation is that my chronic pain maybe untreatable.

That's a pretty pessimistic outlook. I have been searching for answers to my chronice pain for over six years. So many things done, so much research, drugs, SCS, MRIs, injections, etc. I will continue to be my own best advocate, What is the source of your chronic pain? What doctors have you seen(I have seen fifteen or more)? Please let me know.

I have done and continuing to conduct research for treatment and hopefully cures for my rectal area pain. (Had colorectal surgery about 10 year ago.) Lost count on the number of doctors, PT specialists, implanted spinal stimulator, which was useless; and the number of prescription OTC medications have taken over the years all providing very little or no relief.

I am sorry to hear that. Guess we’re in the same pickle. If you could find a doctor or group that would be willing to spend a little extra time trying to pinpoint what’s exactly going on in your body, that would be terrific . I will pray right now for you.

Hi, I was hit by a drunk driver when I was 17 years old. I have had 21 surgeries.
I have taken Opioids for over 40 years. without them I would not be alive.
Why are we always looked down on?
Chronic pain and Arachnoiditis Sucks.
No cure. Some of us need them to make it through the day.

Hello there,
I have been using opioids for 34 years. I wouldn’t be alive without them and could not continue to live without them. Until medical science and research comes up with a better alternative or even something remotely equivalent, it should be a patients personal right to continue to have access to them through prescriptions from their doctor or the physician, “Palliative Care” who treats them.
The reasons of why or what for are in the end, frankly irrelevant to treating the level of pain caused by whatever factors are present. The fact is and remains, when opioids are the most effective and only effective treatment available, that’s what a patient should take and have access too,
Just like a diabetic gaining access to insulin to continue living. You don’t tell a diabetic that the long term use of insulin is or can be harmful to health of your other organs, it’s a secondary consideration when being more concerned with your ability to survive and continue living takes precedent!
Thes’s been far too much mis information, disinformation and lack of factual information regarding the responsible use of opioids by the responsible patients who use them and the doctors who dispense them,
This totally ridiculous “War on Drugs” has become totally ineffective and ends up punishing the legitimate pain patients who rely upon them for their quality of life and their ability to continue living at all.
The facts are extremely clear in addition to the statistics that long term, appropriately prescribed and patient usage of opioids cause very little problems, overdose deaths or other inappropriate factors associated with taking them,
FACT: The overwhelming cause of and high percentage of opioid related deaths is due too and caused by poisonous FENTANYL
from the street.
The DEA and others are punishing the wrong people for a problem that has nothing to do with legitimate pain management patients and for a war they can’t win!
It’s like blaming a diabetic for having to use INSULIN to manage their diabetes.
Pain patients DO NOT SELL their medication. It’s too important and valuable to them to do that and they desperately need it for the management of their own health and wellbeing.
These are “made up” stories which have nothing at all to do with the FACTS.
Granted, there was a time years ago when OXYCOTIN was being abused by doctors and people who weren’t legitimate, severe pain management patients.
However, those days are long gone. Additionally, the root cause of that problem was PHARMA through their inappropriate marketing schemes and lies about non addiction related problems.
So…….those days are gone, times have changed and it’s time to get current with what’s going on now and manage it fairly and appropriately. World War II is over. We don’t keep fighting it!!!!

Hello, @philipsnowden. I hear you loud and clear. You are correct in everything you say. Unfortunately, most of the so-called "experts" have likely never had to go through the excruciating pain that so many of us have to endure 24/7. I am not on powerful opiods like you are, but sometimes I wish I were. Tramadol and gabapentin barely take the edge off my pain(7-8 most days). I had it under decent control for a few years with the help of meds and a SCS. Then, for no explicable reason, all the pain just came roaring back. I remember that after my spinal fusion surgery, they gave me oxycodone, 5mg/325. I remember this feeling of comfort coming over me when I first took it. I can see why it can become addictive. I got off it after two or three months.
I hope you can continue to get the meds you need. Perhaps the medical folks will be smart and ease up. We can only hope and pray.

Hello heisenberg34,
I appreciate your comments and reply. Yes……..due to the incredibly unique combination of multiple severe disease states I manage and the combinations of pain that would simultaneously reach the scale of 10, I existed in a tortuous world of survival without any measurable quality of life for over 20 years. There should be legally enforced medical care and the ability to obtain and use whatever type(s), strengths and amounts of pain medication a patient needs to continue living but also experience enough quality of life to make it worthwhile in doing so. It’s the most basic of human rights that should be guaranteed to any living human being!!!!!
Unfortunately, our country does not value human life or the importance of enjoying a minimally experienced quality of life even when you are severely debilitated.
I’ve learned snd experienced first hand how “ARCHAIC” and in the “DARK AGES” our current medical community and the severe lack of appropriate and humane care it fails to provide it’s severely ill patients who are mostly in need of humane, compassionate care.
That’s the one primary and most obvious missing link of providing quality patient care and the required element of “COMPASSION” that’s needed!
Our health care system is almost entirely devoid of “Compassionate care.” The closest thing you can get to that is from HOSPICE when you are about ready to die.
Well, how do you take appropriate and compassionate care of people who feel just as debilitated, sick and in pain as much as people who are actually on their death bed but they are still living and surviving?
FACT: There is no medical playbook or type of care designed to treat and take care of this particular class of patients.
It’s a huge “black mark” and “gross failure” of our medical profession and their inability to professionally and competently address this huge problem. There are a great number of people/patients who fall into this category that most people don’t even know exists!!!!
I’ve gone through a myriad of obstacles, problems and worse to gain access to my opioids during the past 34 years and it just continues to become more and more difficult as time goes by with more and more misinformation, dis information and inappropriate prejudicial behaviors and horrendous actions taken which continues to unfairly punish and torture legitimate pain patients and their doctors!
It makes me feel ashamed to be and live in a country that is so disassociated from the real problems at hand who have the ability and capability to manage this inexcusable dilemma more successfully but deliberately decide NOT to do so!
One can only surmise that they are willfully ignorant of the challenges at hand and continually choose to become more so as each year passes!
I live in a medical community of absolute idiots when it comes to managing chronic pain and chronic acute pain!
Their mantra is just to “IGNORE IT” and pretend it doesn’t really exist and isn’t really happening!!!!
Absolutely unforgivable and totally shameful.

Hello, I am Wendy, new to this platform. I've been managing Fibromyalgia for 24 years, doing my best to cope. However, a few years back, I started experiencing tailbone pain. Things deteriorated after a Medial Branch Block (MBB), a test to see if I was suitable for Radio Frequency Ablation (RFA). Post-MBB, the pain intensified, leading to severe inflammation that severely limited my mobility and daily activities. The extreme pain subsided after weeks, but I was left with persistent pain that made sitting for more than 30-40 minutes unbearable, as if sitting on jagged rocks. My glutes and sit bones suffered too, along with low back pain, muscle spasms, bursitis in both hips, heel/foot pain, arthritis, and Lymphedema. The RFA offered a slight improvement of 10-15%. It seems my Fibromyalgia is exacerbating the pain, indicating a flare-up lasting 5 months, which is atypical for me, except for one other instance after a critical illness.

For a year, I've engaged in physical therapy and home exercises, albeit limitedly. Cortisone injections in my sacrum facet joints brought no relief, just enough to keep me functional. My Spine and Pain doctor is now recommending a trial with an implanted neurostimulator for 7-10 days, following a successful psychological evaluation and a comprehensive thoracic MRI. I'm striving to remain optimistic and hopeful, despite the struggle to lead a normal life with compromised abilities to sit, stand, and walk.

Amen Brother 🙏 They saved my life and continue to every single day.
This war on us is not good.
Hope all is well with you and your family 🙏 we have to keep fighting for our rights to have some quality of life