Hello,
I am just joining this group. I am looking forward to getting to know all of you. Like the Holy Spirit, chronic pain has been my constant companion for the last 40 years or so. Much of it stems from child abuse. Then a bad fall injured my spine and put me in a wheelchair for 10 years on a ton of opiates. I got off of the opiates in 2014 which caused 9 1/2 hours of seizures, 2 strokes, and 5 wks in a coma. Such a blessing. It left the low back damage numb and I got out of the wheelchair, but left with dystonia in the left leg (severe palsy cramping of the muscles). I have adult onset epilepsy. I’ve had a heart condition that’s electrical for 26 years and just got an implant to monitor it. I went back to school in 2018 to make sure my brain was still working correctly. Went back to work for the IRS. Had my right hip replaced in 2023 from arthritis. That was about my 58th surgery. Fibromyalgia, peripheral neuropathy, and arthritis have all been my friends for many many years. I got new glasses January of 2023 and found out I had very bad cataracts from all of the steroid pain injections. Christmas Eve of 2024, the stairwell light was out at my apartment and I didn’t see the last two stairs. I walked off into nothingness; landed on my knees, and all of that excruciating nerve pain in my low back that had kept me wheelchair bound instantly came back. I was hoping it would go back to being numb… but no such luck. It also really irritated the severe stenosis in my neck and that pain was radiating down into the fingers of my right hand. I had cataract surgery in March of 2025. I refuse to take pain meds … so I have been wheelchair bound and off of work since March 2025. I was able to get pain shots in the low back which have allowed me to walk short distances only. The pain is centralized right at my tailbone now and radiates out from there. My neck is a different banana. I found out yesterday that it requires surgery… three vertebrae will have to be excised and replaced and a second surgery will be required somewhere down the line. So! That’s me! I’m almost always in a good mood. I have excepting techniques. I have only shared the highlights with you. I believe God has the foresight which we lack and that everything happens for a reason. We have to be our own best advocates and be grateful for the things we do have … because it can always worse. It’s nice to meet you all!