I forgot to add that I've been just diagnosed with osteoarthritis

@moniesluv1974 Hi, Monique. I have no idea how old you are but you sound like you have a lot of very painful conditions. I’m not sure how you feel about pain medication but it seems like your dosage is very small, even for someone without half of your conditions, 5 mg every 8 hours. Do you have a pain management doctor that can adjust your dosage or are you trying not to use opioids? I am so sorry you have all of this going on with you!

@moniesluv1974 Hi Monique, welcome to Connect.
You are dealing with a lot, I'm so sorry. The first thing I want to stress is that no matter your struggle, hang on to hope. Remind yourself that you are strong and will persevere.

Thankfully you've reached out for help and suggestions. You're not alone in your pain journey. I know how isolating it can be and how helpless it can feel, especially at a younger age and feeling like "nothing works". I've been through my fair share throughout my 40's.

I'd like to help in any way I can and have a few questions to start.

Are your doctors trying their best to continue to help keep you comfortable and manage your chronic pain?

Do you feel you have been correctly diagnosed or are you still searching for answers?

Hello Monique. Sweetie I sure feel your pain. We have a lot of the same problems. I have severe osteoporosis and have bbroken many bones, the worst being 4 broken vertbraes. I'm under the care of a pain management doctor because surger is too risky for me. I was terrified of taking opiods but my doctor explained the difference of being addicted and being dependent on them. If we take them as directed and responsibily we shouldn't have a problem and thanfully I don't. But I have come to the conclulsion that I am dependent on them because I can't have surgery for a couple different reasons and the spinal injections weren't effective. As bad as I hated to hear this, there wasn't anymore the specialists could do for me so to have any kind of life that was as pain free as possible, I had to take the opiods. I just had to learn a new way of life and what I could and could not do. Even then I found that stepping off a curb broke a vertebrae, so no matter how careful I am, I'm always at risk. Please keep being the squeaky wheel with your pain specialist. Be your own advocate. We don't need to live in constant pain when we have tests to show cause for the pain. Until they finally realize you;re not crazy, rest often and do anything safely to eleviate your pain. But stay in your doctor's face. Research as much as you can and bring it with you to your doctor's visit. That's what I did and I asked tons of questions. I don't know if I've helped but this is what I've learned in my 10 year journey until I found someone that really listened to me and took the proper X-Rays and Scans to show the condition I was really in. Good luck.