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Gabapentin and Cymbalta

Neuropathy | Last Active: Nov 10 6:19pm | Replies (179)

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@greenacres

I play a supporting role for my husband who suffers from painful idiopathic neuropathy. We spent lot of time that took a toll on emotions going for testings and seeing what Sletten refers to as "ologists". I appreciated what he said about stopping that, accepting, changing behaviour patterns and practicing self regulation.
...and being a cheerleader not a coach.

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Replies to "I play a supporting role for my husband who suffers from painful idiopathic neuropathy. We spent..."

@greenacres Your feedback is awesome, thank you! I must congratulate you on being your husband's supportive "coach" and advocate. That's an important role. My husband was mine and learned just how support me through the PRC Family Day education. Chronic pain is a life change and impacts families as well as those who suffer the pain. Everyone could use help along the way to accept, understand and support properly.

Earlier, you asked about hearing from others who went through the program. I'm attaching an enthusiastic post from @mbcarl who graduated PRC -
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/comment/720579/
She has not posted since which tells me she may be out there doing her best to live her new C-life and enforce the PRC principles, one of which is to omit pain behaviors. As you're learning about pain behaviors from the videos, a pain behavior is "anything you do, say or think that reminds you or someone else you're in pain", and should be omitted.

I've been hard pressed to find many returning members post PRC for this reason. That is a good thing! Not that Connect doesn't want members to return and share their experience post-PRC, but if members are on a stable pain-management path forward and move on, then it was all worth Connects support in the process.

I'm curious how your husband feels about the PRC principles that Dr. Sletten teaches? Has he watched the videos with you?

Cheerleader not coaching… I love that phrasing. Having PN that my doctors can’t figure out or give me good advice for, I often resent healthy friends and family who seem so sure about what I need to be doing, when they know much less about it, and we seem equally frustrated with each other because of it. I need to warm up and see the “cheerleading” in the actions, though it’s hard when they are irritated with me when I can’t do what they think I should be able to do. That phrasing makes me realize that when I’m in the supportive role for someone else having an issue, I probably can easily be perceived as being an unqualified boss/coach when in fact I should be encouraging them through cheerleading. Thanks for sharing that piece of wisdom with not just accepting our roles, but probably understanding where our loved ones are challenged in helping us. What I love about this forum is that there are a few great overall coaches here, and folks experienced to coach on a few aspects of dealing with the symptoms, and a swarm of cheerleaders helping each other along!