I found this forum a couple of weeks ago, and have interacted with a few other people who suffer from chronic pain like I have for the past 10 years. My name is Bob, and I live with my wife in Mt. Vernon, Washington. We've been married for over 42 years, have 2 great kids, who now have families of their own, and 4 grand kids.
I've been retired on permanent disability since July of 2015, when I was forced to "retire" and walk away from my job after almost 17 years. We had to sell our home and move in with our son and his family for 2 years before we could afford to rent a place of our own.
I have osteoarthritis in my hips, knees, lower spine, neck, and my right elbow. I've had numerous surgeries on my knees, elbow, and my neck, including 2 separate spinal fusion surgeries in my neck(C5-C6 and C6-T1), and a total of 5 knee operations before finally getting a partial replacement of my left knee in late 2018.
Another factor in my forced retirement was the beginnings of neuropathy in my feet, which made doing my job(I drove a truck and delivered office furniture, supplies, and copy paper) more and more difficult. I started taking gabapentin for my feet, which meant having to give up my CDL, so I "retired".
It took several neurologists and 2 neurosurgeons 10 years of testing to determine that I have idiopathic poly neuropathy in my feet, which has been progressing and becoming more of an issue in my daily life. I'm taking 3600 mg of gabapentin a day to dull the pain, and started taking alpha lipoic acid a few weeks ago after my doctor recommended trying it. I think it does help a little.
I have chronic pain 24/7 from both conditions, and I'm taking 9 prescription drugs currently for several different things. Right now, my quality of life isn't great, but it's the hand that I was dealt.