Chronic Pain members - Welcome, please introduce yourself

To begin with age is just a number. Personally I feel Physical Therapy would be great for you for 2 reasons. The most important being it keeps you moving and help strengthen the muscles, tendons, and ligaments. Not just for your back but for the whole body. As far as acupuncture, it’s been around for thousands of years and some swear by it. ( I’ve never tried it ) . You might if able to try some light yoga along with meditation which helps with relaxation of muscles

Hi David - Good for you for "waking up" and shifting your focus. I agree that helping others, paying it forward and living through gratitude are helpful ways to heal and shift focus from our obstacles. I began writing in a gratitude journal every morning so I could see on paper what I had to be thankful for. When you hurt and are frustrated its not always clear to see what is truly good around you. Both small and large...the sun is shining, brings me joy and gratitude. That and positive distraction have all been an instrumental part of my daily rehab plan.

Bummer about your knees! Do you still have the boat? Can you strategize to find ways to fish? Life's simple pleasures.

No, I no longer have the boat unfortunately. Loading it on and off the trailer , plus hitting chop will take its toll on your knees. I was fortunate though as I actually made money when I sold it due to low hours and the increase of boat inflation. 1 day of fishing meant 2 days in bed due to the pain. I still at times over do it which means another 2 days in bed lol. At times we can be our own worst enemies. A journal is also a great thing to do, especially for new post-op members as it’s good to be able to tell your MD how you’re doing. As well as reflecting on are own blessings. You can look through most any forum and see others who are facing worst situations. Pre-op patients join and you know they’re scared, they’re looking for reassurance of their life and what they’ll be facing afterwards. No 2 are alike. In someways mine was a blessing as my issues started me sitting and reading the Bible and turning me toward Christ. I’ve spent the majority of my life helping others, and now it was me needing help. Especially that first year! I never knew how deep that depression hole can get! Now I don’t take any day for granted. I’ve learned that the smallest things are so important.

Hi I’m Sharon I got diagnosed with ME last week but I’ve been dealing with Lyme disease diagnosis and just chronic pain and neurological issues for the last two years. It’s been a journey. I am laying here not able to really move for the last couple days and in some pretty severe pain. Hopefully our journey across and we can help each other if anything to just cheer each other a long

The sad truth in all this, there appears to be numerous treatments but few if any work; at least for me.

I have a feeling that’s true but I want to retrain my brain to think from a pain mindset to a positive mindset. The pain sucks so bad I have to do something.

I’m on LDN and I’m hoping it works but the goal is not to go on opiates. Wish me luck!

I'd really like to know how your therapy with LDN goes for you. In just read about it and am considering talking to my pain dr about trying it. I'm taking a medication for withdrawal of opiates. I stopped using opiates in June 22, after many years. I'm tapering. off the medication I'm on for withdrawal and came across an article about LDN. Sounds like it's helping a lot of people with chronic pain. Every therapy is hit and miss though! If you don't mind, l'd love to hear about your experience with LDN. Thanks

I’m happy to share but I’ll be honest I’ve noticed that we are all so complex and what works for me not might not work for you and vice versa. I started taking it about a month and a half ago and I’ve had some weird reactions. One being I hated the taste because they had it in a lozenge type situation so I’ve gone to swallowing it. In the beginning I was feeling a little twitchy from it or maybe I would say tweaki. I lowered my dose a little but you do start very very low for a long time before you start moving up. Yesterday my legs were hurting so bad they feel like they were on fire. I took 2 mg and I was talking to my boyfriend and I realize my legs weren’t on fire anymore. I said oh my gosh I don’t know if it’s the naltrexone but for the first time in like days my legs are hurting like I want to chop them off. They still act but it was just a different kind of ache. Now it does take a long time to build up a tolerance and to use it but every time I take a drug and it could be some placebo but I can feel things. So even when I was taking SSRIs years ago they said it took weeks but I felt some weird stuff two days in not that it cured me from OCD but I could just feel something in my body changing. I’m very sensitive to things hence chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia. My body is just very very hyper sensitive unfortunately. I would say try it and because it doesn’t have a lot of adverse reactions like other drugs you can always stop. I’m gonna go back to trying it for a couple of weeks straight to see if I can get the pain to go down. But a sidenote and I don’t have the research to share a doctor that I go to his neurologist so essentially my neurologist was telling me about his colleague who was so adamant that naltrexone was just a scam, that guy ended up doing a big research and double blind study on it and realized it actually works and so the skeptical doctor was even convinced that it does help with pain. It just hasn’t been the great aha moment for me but it has done a little bit of something.

I think it will help you get off of opiates though because it does something in the brain to block opiate pleasure receptors or something like that but it doesn’t necessarily make you feel like you don’t have any pleasure.

For my condition, the surgeon advised I try botox injections for my post operation pain.

My hip surgeon gave me some home exercises to do. I am unable to stand up straight due to pain that is uncontrollable. The home exercises I am supposed to do require me to lay on my back. As I tried to lay on my back, I got the same horrible pain as if I were trying to stand up straight. I do not have this pain if I am sitting or laying on either side which I am thankful. However, I just can't take this horrible pain trying to lay flat on my back nor when I try to stand up straight. Pain medication does nothing, deep massage nor accupuncture does nothing. I have also tried electrical stimulation. Does anyone else have this happening to them?